U.S. temporarily eases curbs on Huawei

Reuters: The United States has temporarily eased trade restrictions on China's Huawei to minimize disruption for its customers, a move the founder of the world's largest telecoms equipment maker said on Tuesday (May 21) meant little because it was already prepared for U.S. action. The U.S. Commerce Department blocked Huawei Technologies from buying U.S. goods last week, a major escalation in the trade war between the world's two top economies, saying the firm was involved in activities contrary to national security. On Monday (May 20), the Commerce Department granted Huawei a license to buy U.S. goods until August 19 to maintain existing telecoms networks and provide software updates to Huawei smartphones, a move intended to give telecom operators that rely on Huawei time to make other arrangements. Huawei is still prohibited from buying American-made hardware and software to make new products without further, hard-to-obtain licenses. Chip experts have called out Huawei on its claims that it could ensure a steady supply chain without U.S. help, saying the technology it buys from American companies would be "hard to replace."