The US extends restrictions against Huawei, and can someone just give ‘em some Google apps

In a time where restrictions are the order of the day, we would have loved to see the Trump administration give Huawei some leeway regarding its current trading sanctions. But that’s not the case. Today, pres. Donald Trump announced that the US will continue with restrictions against the Chinese telecom until May 2021.

According to Reuters, the renewed order doesn’t explicitly name Huawei, although it is clearly aimed at the company, but it’s evident that the restrictions will hit them hardest. “U.S. lawmakers said Trump’s 2019 order was aimed squarely at Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp,” Reuters reports. 

It’s interesting seeing that Huawei has still been allowed to work with some US companies, especially considering 5G connectivity and networking equipment. Which is the telecom’s main market. Rural companies in the US are apparently hit hardest, as Huawei is the main supplier for their networks and infrastructure. 

Try to get a licence, just try

But it looks like the US Commerce Department has been issuing temporary license extensions since the inception of the ban in May 2019 just to keep small businesses up and running. This is especially true now that these businesses are the ones hit hardest by worldwide lockdown regulations and COVID-19. 

Nothing has been said about the possibility to have Huawei trade freely with companies like Google, Facebook and Instagram, which means that the US Commerce Department isn’t issuing licences to these tech companies. 

It doesn’t look like the Trump Administration is ready to budge on giving Huawei more reign in the US at the moment. And it may be years before we see another Huawei device running Google apps out of the box. Luckily Huawei’s been bolstering its AppGallery and launching great devices at that.