Huawei licensing deals will be 'timely,' Trump reportedly says

US tech companies will be able to continue selling to Huawei.

Corinne Reichert Senior Writer

Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently oversees the CNET breaking news desk for the West Coast. Corinne covers everything from phones, social media and security to movies, politics, 5G and pop culture. In her spare time, she watches soccer games, F1 races and Disney movies.

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Corinne Reichert

July 23, 2019 3:30 a.m. PT

2 min read

honor-view-20-comparison-phones-7 — US tech companies will be able to continue selling equipment to the Chinese giant if they get a license.
Angela Lang/CNET

US President Donald Trump has reportedly agreed to award licensing deals between American companies and Chinese tech giant Huawei in a "timely" way. It comes as the US government looks to negotiate a trade deal with China, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Huawei was blacklisted in May when it was added to the United States' "entity list" (PDF). But US companies will be able to sell equipment to Huawei, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed earlier this month, if they get licenses when there's no threat to national security.

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The Trump agreement reportedly followed a meeting at the White House with tech giants Google , Qualcomm , Intel , Cisco , Broadcom, Western Digital and Micron Technology.

"The CEOs expressed strong support of the president's policies, including national security restrictions on United States telecom equipment purchases and sales to Huawei," the White House told The Wall Street Journal. "They requested timely licensing decisions from the Department of Commerce, and the president agreed. The group was also optimistic about United States 5G innovation and deployments."

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Huawei ban

Micron boss Sanjay Mehrotra was among the group who met Trump and members of the US National Economic Council, the company confirmed via email.

"We believe strategic technology investment and policies that ensure open and fair trade on a level playing field are essential to ongoing US technology leadership as well as economic growth throughout the world," it said in a statement.

In addition to adding Huawei to the entity list, Trump at the same time signed an executive order essentially banning the company in light of national security concerns that Huawei had close ties with the Chinese government. Huawei has repeatedly denied that charge.

CNET's Sean Keane contributed to this report.

First published July 22 at 4:57 p.m. PT.
Updated July 23 at 3:30 a.m. PT: Adds Micron statement.