U.S. Will Ease Huawei Sanctions for Another 90 Days

The U.S. will extend for another 90 days a limited set of exemptions that had protected rural networks and other U.S. customers from a ban on doing business with Huawei, according to Bloomberg, citing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Some telecom companies in the U.S. are “dependent“ on Huawei, and so a 90-day reprieve was deemed appropriate, Ross said in an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. Still, the U.S. also added more than 40 Huawei affiliates to a trade blacklist.

“We’re giving them a little more time to wean themselves off,“ he added. Ross said the next deadline will be around Nov. 19. He added that Commerce decided to place 46 more Huawei subsidiaries on its entity list.

The announcement doesn’t address the wider national-security concerns about Huawei and answer the bigger question of whether U.S. chip companies and other major suppliers will be allowed to sell parts to China.

Huawei said in a statement that the temporary relief “does not change the fact that the company has been treated unjustly. Today’s decision won’t have a substantial impact on Huawei’s business either way.“ The move to add more of Huawei’s affiliates to the so-called Entity List “at this particular time, is politically motivated and has nothing to do with national security,“ the company said.