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US to start to relax Huawei ban, announces White House

American firms are offered licences to sell to Huawei as the White House signals a detente in negotiations with Beijing.

DONGGUAN, CHINA - APRIL 25: The Huawei logo is seen on the side of the main building at the company&#39;s production campus on April 25, 2019 in Dongguan, near Shenzhen, China. Huawei is Chinas most valuable technology brand, and sells more telecommunications equipment than any other company in the world, with annual revenue topping $100 billion U.S. Headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, considered Chinas Silicon Valley, Huawei has more than 180,000 employees worldwide, with nearly half of
Image: US firms will now be offered licences to sell products to Huawei
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The White House has announced it will relax sanctions on Huawei which prevented American firms from providing technologies to the company.

It follows a G20 summit directive from President Trump to ease pressure on the firm following positive trade deal talks with China.

Huawei had been added to a US commercial blacklist in May which required US firms to get a licence in order to sell products to the company.

Huawei: Company and security risks explained

Huawei: Company and security risks explained

Protectionism or just protection?

Signalling progress in trade negotiations between China and America, a Trump administration official confirmed that licences would be issued to US firms.

US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed to an export controls conference that licences would be issued as long as "there is no threat to US national security".

When Huawei was first added to the blacklist, businesses from Google to Intel were forced to rapidly pause their commercial relationships with Huawei.

The move left users of Huawei smartphones and tablets in a difficult position as they were based on software developed by Google and Microsoft.

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Although they couldn't have this software stripped away from them, the devices potentially would have been prohibited from receiving security updates - leaving their users exposed to cyber attacks.

Speaking at a CNBC event, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the US had "opened the door, relaxed a bit" on the requirements for issuing licences to sell to Huawei.

"We are opening that up for a limited time period," said Mr Kudlow, who did not say how limited this time period would be.



He added that the trade talks with China are set to resume again: "The most important thing, the headline, is that talks and negotiations will resume, after a couple months of hiatus."

The Trump administration's sanctions against Huawei have been justified in terms of the national security threat which it alleges Huawei's telecommunications equipment - and ties to Beijing - pose to the country.

However, Huawei itself and the Chinese government dispute these claims, accusing Washington of abusing national security "as a tool for trade protectionism".

Victor Zhang, Huawei's global head of government affairs, said: "We are working to understand the scope of this latest US announcement.

"Huawei spent over £900 million with British businesses last year and significant contracts were put at risk by the US measures.

"Our partners here and around the world will benefit from any steps that help maintain open markets for technology," Mr Zhang added.

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