Huawei

Report: Trump set to allow US companies licenses to sell goods to Huawei

Damien Wilde | Oct 10 2019 - 5:06 am PT

Select US companies could soon be granted licenses allowing them to sell products to Huawei.

The New York Times suggests that President Donald Trump is ready to issue licenses to select US companies allowing them to sell specific equipment to the Chinese manufacturer.

According to NYT sources, the decision was made by Trump to approve licenses to US companies during a meeting last week. These licenses would allow businesses to sell nonsensitive equipment to Huawei, essentially making the ban moot for those granted a license.

They also report that since August over 130 applications have been submitted to the Commerce Department by companies looking to sell goods to Huawei. It’s worth noting that the Trump administration had stated in June that some US companies would be able to sell to Huawei if granted a license — none have been issued.

It’s unclear if these licenses to sell to Huawei will be extended to software and, therefore, Android. As you may know, Huawei pressed ahead with the Mate 30 Pro launch despite not having ‘official’ access to Google Play Services. This could potentially be a lifeline for the beleaguered smartphone brand — who is still currently the world’s second-biggest smartphone manufacturer.

The long-running saga doesn’t look set to end though, as this could be yet another temporary reprieve for Huawei in the ongoing US-China trade war. Should this mean that Google can grant Android licenses for Huawei devices, Google Play Services could soon be on the recently released Mate 30 Pro family — which is potentially great news for those globally.

With that said, it looks as though this will only apply to “so-called general merchandise” according to The New York Times. Given the US government stance on the Chinese firm, we don’t expect anything to drastically change even with these limited licenses.