US Trade Ban Might Be Loosened for Huawei

Ever since the US-China trade war had started, many have wondered how businesses partnered with a Chinese tech firm, Huawei will continue to collaborate with the company. In fact, the future of such firms has been quite a concern — so much so that over 260 requests were sent to the Commerce Department, according to Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross. With more requests than the Department was expecting constantly coming in, the blacklisting of Huawei might end up loosening a bit shortly. Ross pointed out that this should not lead to the assumption the companies would simply get full permission to deal with Huawei as they used to before the trade war. In fact, he stated that firms should assume that they will not receive a license. While the US does expect to grant licenses to some of them, it will try to keep such permissions to a minimum. So far, Ross has avoided naming any of the companies that have applied for permission to collaborate with Huawei. Even so, it is known that Google is one of the firms that were particularly impacted by the trade ban. After all, if Google and Huawei cannot collaborate, then Huawei cannot release new phones that run Android and use Google apps. In other words, as soon as the Huawei’s temporary license for phone updates expires, the company won’t be able to affect existing phones. That is unless Google receives a license to keep working with the firm. If the tech giant receives permission, the two can re-establish their former relationship, for the benefit of all, including millions of users around the world. However, the same may not be true for telecoms. The Huawei ban is mostly based on fears that the Chinese government might be using the company to spy on US users. This led to FCC banning telecoms from using Huawei tools and equipment. In other words, as long as such fears exist, telecoms are unlikely to receive permission to resume their collaboration with Huawei. What do you think about the partial lifting of the ban? Do you think that Google will get the license? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

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