Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      MVNO boom is reshaping South Africa’s mobile market

      12 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      South African law is failing gig-economy workers

      12 June 2025

      MultiChoice’s TV empire shrinks – but its ‘side hustles’ are holding strong

      12 June 2025

      MultiChoice is bleeding subscribers

      11 June 2025
    • World

      Qualcomm shows off new chip for AI smart glasses

      11 June 2025

      Trump tariffs to dim 2025 smartphone shipments

      4 June 2025

      Shrimp Jesus and the AI ad invasion

      4 June 2025

      Apple slams EU rules as ‘flawed and costly’ in major legal pushback

      2 June 2025

      Mark Zuckerberg has finally found a use for his metaverse

      30 May 2025
    • In-depth

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025

      South Africa unveils big state digital reform programme

      12 May 2025

      Is this the end of Google Search as we know it?

      12 May 2025
    • TCS

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025

      TCS | Sentiv, and the story behind the buyout of Altron Nexus

      3 June 2025

      TCS | Signal restored: Unpacking the Blue Label and Cell C turnaround

      28 May 2025
    • Opinion

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025

      Digital giants boost South African news media – and get blamed for it

      29 May 2025

      Solar panic? The truth about SSEG, fines and municipal rules

      14 April 2025

      Data protection must be crypto industry’s top priority

      9 April 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Sections » Huawei’s long nightmare may soon be over

    Huawei’s long nightmare may soon be over

    By Agency Staff4 November 2019
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross expressed optimism that the US would reach a “phase one” trade deal with China this month and said licences would be coming “very shortly” for American companies to sell components to Huawei Technologies.

    President Donald Trump on Sunday told reporters at the White House that a trade agreement, if one is completed, would be signed somewhere in the US. “First of all I want to get the deal,” he said after returning for a trip to New York City. “The meeting place, to me, is going to be very easy.”

    Ross said Iowa, Alaska, Hawaii and locations in China were all possible places for Trump and Xi Jinping to sign the deal after the cancellation of this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile due to unrest in the country. He called the agreement “particularly complicated” and said the US was “making sure that each side has a very correct and clear, detailed understanding of what each side has agreed to”.

    For China, removing all the additional tariffs is a core concern that has not changed and will never change

    “We’re in good shape, we’re making good progress, and there’s no natural reason why it couldn’t be,” Ross told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in an interview on Sunday in Bangkok, when asked if the deal is on track to be signed this month. “But whether it will slip a little bit, who knows. It’s always possible.”

    Stocks edged higher in Asia and American equity futures ticked up amid greater optimism on trade. Top negotiators both spoke on the phone on Friday and described the talks as “constructive” as they look to lower tensions in a trade war that has roiled global growth.

    On Saturday after the call, Chinese state media reiterated the nation’s core demands, including the removal of all punitive tariffs. “For China, removing all the additional tariffs is a core concern that has not changed and will never change; even if there is a first phase deal, this core concern should be reflected,” wrote Taoran Notes, a blog affiliated with the state-run Economic Daily.

    Import taxes

    The deal would see China increase purchases of US agriculture products, keep its currency stable and open financial services markets to American firms. In return, Beijing wants the US to do away with new import taxes due to take effect on 15 December on goods including smartphones.

    Ross, who is attending a regional summit hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, remained non-committal on whether the Trump administration would suspend the December tariff hike. He also said further phases of the deal would depend on things involving legislation on the part of China and an enforcement mechanism, without which “all you’ve got is a pile of paper”.

    Chinese officials have cast doubts about reaching a comprehensive long-term trade deal even as the two sides close in on the phase one agreement. China has stated for months that a final deal must include the removal of all punitive tariffs, and has baulked at reforms in areas such as state-run enterprises that could jeopardise the Communist Party’s grip on power.

    Trump has placed dozens of Chinese firms on the commerce department’s Entity List, hampering their ability to purchase American software and components. It first targeted Huawei in May for national security reasons, and last month added 28 more companies including artificial intelligence giants SenseTime Group, Megvii Technology and Hikvision.

    Entities on the list are prohibited from doing business with American companies without being granted a US government licence, although some have maintained relationships with banned companies through international subsidiaries. China’s government has signalled it will hit back over the blacklist, and the companies have denied wrongdoing.

    “There is not any cybersecurity issue for us and there is no evidence from the US to say that,” Edward Zhou, a Huawei vice president, said in an address earlier on Sunday in Bangkok during the regional summit. “We predict that this year, we can almost keep up the same performance as last year, even under such great pressure from the US government.”

    We predict that this year, we can almost keep up the same performance as last year, even under such great pressure…

    The blacklist is also hurting American companies that do business with China, and particularly Huawei. Trump said in June after meeting with Xi in Japan that he’d “easily” agreed to allow American firms to continue certain exports to Huawei, and weeks later Trump said he’d accelerate the approval process for licences.

    Still, none has been granted so far. The president as recently as this month green-lit the approval of licences in a meeting with advisers, according to people familiar with the matter, but an announcement has yet to be made.

    Ross on Sunday said the licences “will be forthcoming very shortly”, noting that the government received 260 requests.

    ‘Assume denial’

    “That’s a lot of applications — it’s frankly more than we would’ve thought,” Ross said in the interview. “Remember, too, with Entity Lists there’s a presumption of denial. So, the safe thing for these companies would be to assume denial, even though we will obviously approve quite a few of them.”

    One of the industry’s main arguments for allowing shipments of non-national security sensitive items is that Huawei can buy some of those components from competitors around the world, including South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

    Ross also defended the US’s engagement in Asia after Trump skipped the Asean meetings for the second straight year. And he downplayed the significance of a 16-nation trade agreement backed by China that would lower tariffs in an area representing about a third of the world’s economy. Asian leaders were expected to announce a breakthrough on the agreement, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, at the end of the meetings.

    Donald Trump. Image: Alicia Brand

    While contentious issues remain and the terms aren’t yet known, RCEP would at least in part fill a trade gap left by the US after Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017. Southeast Asia, which collectively has the world’s fifth largest economy, has struggled to wade through the economic fallout of enduring trade tensions between the US and China.

    “RCEP is not much of an agreement,” Ross said. “It’s not a free trade agreement, it’s not anything remotely like TPP, nor anything remotely like our separate arrangements with Japan and with South Korea. So, I don’t think you want to blow that out of proportion. It’s a very low-grade treaty.”  — Reported by Philip J Heijmans and Haslinda Amin, with assistance from Jennifer Jacobs, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP



    Donald Trump Huawei top Wilbur Ross Xi Jinping
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleWhat trade war? Big Tech’s money-making machine ploughs ahead
    Next Article Bitcoin’s government enemies are plotting revenge

    Related Posts

    Huawei bets on brains over brawn in AI chip race

    10 June 2025

    Elon Musk to Donald Trump: ‘Go ahead, make my day’

    6 June 2025

    Telecoms operators back BEE reforms – but warn against favouritism

    5 June 2025
    Company News

    Building a cyber-resilient culture from the boardroom to the front lines

    12 June 2025

    How South Africa’s municipalities are finally getting smart

    12 June 2025

    Ransomware roulette: pay up or power through?

    11 June 2025
    Opinion

    Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

    2 June 2025

    South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

    2 June 2025

    Digital giants boost South African news media – and get blamed for it

    29 May 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.