Pentagon expected to back additional Huawei restrictions: source
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[February 13, 2020]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon
is likely to back new U.S. restrictions on Huawei Technologies,
reversing earlier opposition to a proposal meant to further crack down
on exports to the blacklisted Chinese company, a person briefed on the
matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
The reversal would make it harder for U.S. companies to get around the
effective ban on exports to Huawei, the world's second-largest
smartphone maker.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recently called Defense Secretary Mark
Esper to discuss the issue and a meeting on it is expected next week,
the source said. A higher-level meeting will take place on Feb. 28, when
U.S. officials will discuss further curbing technology exports to China
and Huawei.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday it "continuously reviews and
updates export controls to address the challenges of accelerating
technology diffusion and innovation."

The department added that the "scope of the current de minimis threshold
for controlled items, as well as the foreign direct product rule, to
listed entities, are controls under review."
Politico first reported the Pentagon's likely reversal earlier, citing
people familiar with internal deliberations.
The Department of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.
The Trump administration added Huawei to an economic blacklist in May
last year, citing national security concerns.
In blacklisting the company, the U.S. government had said it had a
"reasonable basis to conclude that Huawei is engaged in activities that
are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests."
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The Huawei logo is seen on a communications device in London,
Britain, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Huawei has repeatedly denied the accusations.
Reuters reported in November that the United States might expand its
power to stop more foreign shipments of products with U.S.
technology to Huawei. This could allow authorities to regulate sales
of non-sensitive items to Huawei, such as standard cell phone chips,
made abroad with U.S.-origin technology, software, or components.
If U.S. export control rules are revised, trade lawyer Doug Jacobson
said it could lead to some lost sales by U.S. companies.
"But at the end of the day it will not limit Huawei’s ability to
manufacture the goods in China that they need to supply their
customers," Jacobson said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Karen Freifeld in New
York, Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Tom
Brown)
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