U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration are expected to make an announcement sometime on Wednesday, August 7th with respect to preventing government agencies from doing any business with Huawei.
According to a senior administration official, CNBC reported that the ruling will come out in the afternoon and will ban government agencies from purchasing telecom, video surveillance equipment or services from Huawei.
The article indicated that this was a prohibition that was mandated by Congress last year in a broader defence bill.
“The administration has a strong commitment to defending our nation from foreign adversaries, and will fully comply with Congress on the implementation of the prohibition of Chinese telecom and video surveillance equipment, including Huawei equipment,” Jacob Wood, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, told CNBC.
The article indicated that the new rule would be effective as of August 13th and would not only apply to Huawei but also the list of other telecom companies that have a national security threat; CNBC indicated that would include ZTE and Hikvision.
The official indicated that contractors will be able to get a waiver from individual federal agencies if they think there isn’t a national security threat in using any of these companies’ equipment.
A broader ban on federal contractors doing business with Huawei has been set for August 2020, the article indicated.
In May, Trump banned Huawei from doing any business with U.S. companies, that ban was slightly amended in June and the U.S. Commerce Department began allowing companies to apply for a licence to do business with Huawei so long as it does not pose a national security threat.
Similar efforts are in place in Canada where Huawei can’t bid on government contracts, a rule that was imposed by former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in 2012.
The U.S. has been urging its allies to forbid Huawei from participating in any 5G network rollouts saying that the company has backdoors that will allow the Chinese government to spy on individuals.
Huawei has denied these allegations and has, on numerous occasions, said its products are tested and don’t pose a national security threat.
Source: CNBC
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
