Early this morning in Asia, Politico ran the news that the United States Department of Commerce is expected to extend a limited, temporary waiver for blacklisted firm Huawei.
Politico’s story also mentioned that the department is less likely to respect any last-minute directives from the White House and that the fate of broader export licenses providing relief for the major US chipmakers remains unclear.
Back in August, for the second time, the United States granted Huawei another 90-day Temporary General License that allowed it to service existing networks and equipment and providing software updates and patches to its handsets.
Unfortunately, that temporary license is due to expire on November 18, and at the moment, there appears to be no real deal between Washington, and Beijing that may signal an end to Huawei’s distress.
In spite of all this, sources with the White House say the Commerce Department might grant Huawei yet another Six months Waiver.
According to Politico, the waiver extension may be granted to allow rural telecom firms to maintain and utilize existing Huawei networking equipment and associated software. The previous extensions were related to software, which is also expected here. This potential extension would mean that Huawei and Honor owners will be guaranteed updates from Google at least until May 2020.
However, it’s important to note that this will only be applicable to a series of Huawei, and Honor devices. These are the devices that got Google’s certification before the US ban. In essence, that means the Mate 30, and of course, the Mate X will remain without essential Google services.
Since the Trump administration implemented the ban on the Chinese firm, the U.S. Commerce Department has reportedly received over 260 applications from U.S. firms for licenses to sell goods to Chinese telecom Technologies maker, none of which have been granted till date. A number of US firms and Huawei partners have since cut ties with the Chinese firm.
Earlier in August, President Donald Trump had also said that he does not want more extensions and that when the current one was over there would be no more. The US aside cutting ties with China.s Huawei has also pressured its allies, warning them of the dangers in doing business with the Chinese firms. Although, the Commerce Department and even the Chinese firm has yet to verify whether or not the current extension when it lapses on the 18th will further be extended.
Now that Huawei is currently unable to offer new devices with Google apps installed and the temporary license is set to expire, granting a permanent trade license will ensure that millions get the updates needed and will allow Huawei to resume adding Google Apps to future devices.
Even though this is potentially good news, Ross confirmed that licenses still might not be granted. “Remember too with entity lists there’s a presumption of denial,” Ross said. “So the safe thing for these companies would be to assume denial, even though we will obviously approve quite a few of them.”
In the event that a license is granted, you would assume the immediate beneficiary would be the Mate 30 Pro. It would do wonders for the device, which is currently limited to China, simply due to the lack of Google Play Services. But as usual, the confusion continues over the fate of Huawei’s devices in the wake of the US ban. As we continue tracking these policy updates, we will be sure to inform you as and when we hear more on the matter.