Huawei dodges ban again, granted another licence extension from the U.S. Commerce Department

Huawei’s future in the United States market remains undecided, as the U.S. government is unable to completely ban the Chinese company. The U.S. Commerce Department once again extended Huwawei’s trading license (the fourth time since Q2 2019), allowing it to conduct business with U.S. entities through May 15.

A few weeks ago, Google was also trying to obtain a licence to continue its collaboration with Huawei, and it looks like there may be other companies that do not want to cut ties with Huawei. In this respect, the U.S Commerce Department is asking all tech and telecom companies to provide estimations regarding the financial consequences that would be brought on by a complete Huawei ban until March 25.

The latest license extension is also supposed to grant U.S. companies additional time to find proper alternatives for Huawei’s hardware and software solutions. This is part of the U.S. government endeavor to help all entities including small rural carriers to effectively reduce the reliance on Huawei’s equipment. All rural carriers are now benefiting from reimbursed hardware expense and are strongly advised to switch to U.S.-based hardware providers.

These measures should woo the smaller companies, but the large entities like Qualcomm and Google may still prove reluctant, since the U.S. government will most likely be unable to cover billions of US$ in losses.