Huawei remains on entity list, but will be able to trade with some US firms

Earlier this year, Huawei was restricted from doing any trade with US firms by an executive order of the Trump White House. This effectively crippled its smartphone and notebook business, leading Google and other tech leaders to plead for a reprieve. At the G20 meeting last month, Huawei was granted that reprieve by the US President. Today, the US Department of Commerce has now clarified what will be going on in future:

The US Department of Commerce noted:

To implement the President’s G-20 Summit directive two weeks ago, Commerce will issue licenses where there is no threat to U.S. national security. Within those confines we will try to make sure that we don’t just transfer revenue from the U.S. to foreign firms. Huawei itself remains on the Entity List, and the announcement does not change the scope of items requiring licenses from the Commerce Department, nor the presumption of denial.

For consumers, this likely means that Microsoft and Google will be able to resume doing business with Huawei pretty soon. Huawei equipment won’t be used in any sensitive military operations, and it’ll still remain banned in the US for the foreseeable future. For the moment, however, the firm’s technology business appears to have been saved in the nick of time.