Huawei Technologies knows it’s not an easy time to engage with the company. But those who do will be rewarded, said global vice president of marketing insights Andrew Williamson in an interview in Mexico City.

“Huawei will invest heavily in those countries where we are welcome,” he said, adding that rolling out 5G technology around the world will be that much more challenging if the US goes ahead with its sanctions.

“Restricting competition in 5G infrastructure will have huge costs. Governments and companies around the world will have to address those costs against the supposed risks of national security,” he said.

Last month, the Trump administration issued an order that could restrict Huawei from selling equipment in the US. Washington also put the company on a blacklist, threatening its supply of American components from semiconductors to the Google apps that run on its smartphones.

Williamson said it’s still too early to tell if all the noise around the company lately has had an impact in Mexican customers, but the company’s second-quarter report should shed some light on the situation. In Europe, Huawei’s smartphone business appears to be losing ground. Consumer fear that Huawei phones will quickly become out of date has meant demand for its devices has “dropped off a cliff”, Ben Stanton, a UK-based analyst at Canalys said.

“We believe there’s a need for global cybersecurity standards to be set,” Williamson said, adding it’s willing to work closely with governments to address their national security concerns. “We have to go back to the facts, go back to evidence-based policy making.”

Future trade deal

In Mexico, Huawei is providing the technology for the country’s wholesale wireless network, Red Compartida. It’s also working with every major carrier, including AT&T and America Movil, he said.

The US is sticking to its decision to bar Huawei from next-generation telecommunications networks in America even though President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of including the company in a future trade deal with China, a state department official said Thursday in Brussels.

The US justice department has also indicted Huawei for theft of trade secrets and is pursuing a criminal case against the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, alleging that she conspired to defraud banks into unwittingly clearing transactions linked to Iran in violation of US sanctions. — Reported by Andrea Navarro, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP