Commerce Department Told by Senior US Official to Treat Huawei as Blacklisted

A senior US official told the Commerce Department’s enforcement staff that Huawei should still be treated as blacklisted, days after President Donald Trump sowed confusion with a vow to ease a ban on sales to the firm. President Trump's surprise announcement to promise Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would allow US companies to sell products to Huawei spawned confusion among industry players and government officials struggling to understand what Huawei policy he had unveiled. In an email to Commerce Dept enforcement staff, the official said that license requests by firms seeking approval to sell to Huawei should be considered on merit and flagged with language noting that “This party is on the Entity List. Evaluate the associated license review policy under part 744,” citing regulations that include the Entity List and the “presumption of denial” licensing policy that is applied to blacklisted companies.