The world’s second largest smartphone manufacturer seems out of the trouble as the American President has some trade concessions with China in the recent G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. But Huawei continues to remain on the US Entity List. Continue reading to learn more.
A bit of history on the ban
I’d recommend you to skip this sub-topic if you know the history of the ban already.
The main story began in May this year when the US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that allowed the US government to blacklist some companies that posed a threat at national security. All the companies that got blacklisted were restricted to do business with any US company. Huawei was also included in the list.
Followed by this was the cutting of ties of US companies with Huawei. Starting off with Google, which snatched Huawei’s Android license and later put Huawei P30 Pro out from the Android Q beta list (Google later added it back).
This brought losses to Huawei as their laptops were removed from the Microsoft store. They were no longer allowed to use microSD cards on their devices. And, most recently a Fed-Ex refused to deliver Huawei phones into the US. But some time later, the US government gave Huawei a 90-day exemption from the ban to complete their incomplete deals with some US companies.
Since then Huawei has been rumoured (and sometimes caught) developing their own OS. This Huawei OS, which will be a substitute for Android on Huawei devices, is rumoured to be named as Oak OS, ArkOS or Hongmeng OS.
Trump’s Move!
The international G20 Summit was held recently, where US President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping. They discussed trade issues that are prevalent among them. Trump agreed to reverse the recent sanctions against Huawei.
Their meeting was followed by a 74-minute news conference, where President Trump told the media that China will be buying US farm goods in exchange on flexibility on Huawei starting “almost immediately”. Details on specifics were disclosed while Chinese officials haven’t confirmed the order.
China’s Foreign Ministry quoted Xi as telling Trump that any “negotiations should be equal and show mutual respect.”
Trump said he would now allow U.S. technology companies to supply Huawei “equipment where there is no great national emergency problem with it.” He denied to elaborate and give details on this until he met with his national security team in the next few days.
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow revealed more information in an interview on Fox News Sunday. Kudlow said the Trump administration would simply grant some licenses to allow U.S. companies to sell products to Huawei, under the proviso that sales pose no threat to national security, Kudlow said.
.@larry_kudlow on the President allowing Huawei to be used in some U.S. businesses #FNS pic.twitter.com/dbhrxup7xH
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) June 30, 2019
So Huawei Must Be Removed From the Us Entity List?
Surprisingly, NO. The US government has not yet removed Huawei from its so-called “Entity List” of companies. No formal decision has been made and discussions between China and the US are ongoing. Trump also said that Huawei is still a security threat in the US government’s views.
According to the BBC, Trump said “We had a very good meeting with President Xi of China, excellent, I would say excellent, as good as it was going to be. We discussed a lot of things and we’re right back on track and we’ll see what happens.”
Does this mean Huawei will be back into action as it was earlier?
Even if the ban is lifted formally next week, its effect will continue to be seen. The company said that it’s 2019 revenue will be $30 billion below the estimated target due to the disruption caused by the ban.
Huawei was also expected to beat Samsung this year to be the #1 smartphone manufacturer in the world but due to the ban, this target will now take some more time.
All Huawei phones will continue to receive expected updates and security patches. And the higher-end smartphone models to which Huawei promised to bring the Android Q beta will also get the beta update.
