Trump administration revokes licences of Huawei suppliers, including Intel

The US government intends to reject dozens of other applications to sell products to the Chinese telecoms company

The US government has revoked certain licences held by US suppliers such as chip maker Intel, barring them from selling products to China's Huawei. Reuters

The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chip maker Intel, that it is revoking certain licences to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecoms company.

The action – probably the last against Huawei under President Donald Trump – is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world's largest telecoms equipment maker, which Washington considers a national security threat.

The notices came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the final days of Mr Trump's administration. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday.

Huawei and Intel declined to comment.

The Commerce Department refused to comment on specific licensing decisions but said it continues to work with other agencies to "consistently" apply licensing policies in a way that "protects US national security and foreign policy interests".

In an email documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday the Commerce Department had issued "intents to deny a significant number of licence requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued licence".

There was more than one revocation, with reports of eight licences being withdrawn from four companies.

The news triggered moderate profit-taking in some semiconductor-related shares in Asia.

Korea's Samsung Electronics fell by 1.5 per cent while Japan's Advantest shed 1.5 per cent and Tokyo Electron lost 0.8 per cent.

Japanese flash memory chip maker Kioxia had at least one licence revoked. The company, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corporation, said it does not "disclose business details regarding specific products or customers".

The semiconductor association's email said the actions spanned a "broad range" of products in the semiconductor industry and asked companies whether they had received notices.

The email noted that companies had been waiting "many months" for licensing decisions, and with less than a week left in the administration, dealing with the denials was a challenge.

A spokesman for the semiconductor group did not respond to a request for comment.

Companies that received the "intent to deny" notices have 20 days to respond, and the Commerce Department has 45 days to advise them of any change in a decision or it becomes final.

Companies would then have another 45 days to appeal.

The US put Huawei on a Commerce Department "entity list" in May 2019, restricting suppliers from selling US goods and technology to it.

But some sales were allowed and others denied as the US intensified its crackdown on the company, in part by expanding US authority to require licences for sales of semiconductors made abroad with American technology.

Before the latest action, about 150 licences were pending for $120 billion worth of goods and technology held up because various US agencies could not agree on whether they should be granted.

Another $280bn of licence applications for goods and technology for Huawei still have not been processed but now are more likely to be denied.

Intel received licences from US authorities to continue supplying certain products to Huawei, a company  spokesman said in September last year.

An August rule said that products with 5G capabilities were likely to be rejected, but sales of less sophisticated technology would be decided on a case-by-case basis.

The US made the latest decisions during half a dozen meetings that began on January 4 with senior officials from the departments of Commerce, State, Defence and Energy.

The officials developed detailed guidance with regard to which technology was capable of 5G, and then applied that standard.

That meant issuing denials for the vast majority of the roughly 150 disputed applications, and revoking the eight licences to make those consistent with the latest denials.

The US action came after pressure from Corey Stewart who was recently appointed by Mr Trump to the Commerce Department. Mr Stewart wanted to push through hardline China policies after being hired for a two-month stint in the agency at the end of the administration.

Mr Trump has taken aim at Huawei in other ways. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and daughter of the company's founder, was arrested in Canada in December 2018, on a US warrant.

Ms Meng and the company itself were indicted for misleading banks about its business in Iran.

Ms Meng has said she is innocent. Huawei has denied the claims of spying and pleaded not guilty to the indictment, which also includes charges of breaching US sanctions against Iran and conspiring to steal trade secrets from American technology companies.