Not too long after the US government’s initial ban on Huawei, the former is allowing the company to buy products from American suppliers once again. It wasn’t a permanent deal, and is set to end today, on 19 August. But it looks like the US Commerce Department is wiling to extend this time window.
According to Reuters’ sources, the Commerce Department is willing to extend the licensing deal for 90 days. Bloomberg reports that the deal was discussed by both US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Larry Kudlow, the White House national Economic Council director, said that there will be up to 10 more days of discussions with China.
We are doing very well with China, and talking!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2019
That said, it looks like Trump is not keen on the deal himself. Over the weekend, he told reporters that “we are not open to doing business at all because it’s a national security threat”. He also said that he will come to a decision later today.
Previous reports stated that the US government may give license to certain companies to deal with Huawei again. These licenses are also set to expire today. Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce, said that he will provide an update on this later today as well.
