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Trump moves to ban foreign telecom gear
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SME Times News Bureau | 16 May, 2019
US President Donald Trump has moved to ban American telecom firms from
installing foreign-made equipment that could pose a threat to national
security, White House officials said, stepping up a battle against China
by effectively barring sales by Huawei, the countrys leading networking
company.
On Wednesday, Trump issued an executive order
instructing Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, to ban transactions "posing
an unacceptable risk" but did not single out any nation or company, The
New York Times reported.
The order came amid an escalating
trade war between the US and China, with the two sides imposing hundreds
of billions of dollars of tariffs. Trump has accused the Chinese
government of unfair trade practices and announced increased tariffs on
an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods that went into force
on May 10.
The executive order was "agnostic", White House
officials said in a call with reporters, declining to single out China
as the focus.
"This administration will do what it takes to keep
America safe and prosperous and to protect America from foreign
adversaries" targeting vulnerabilities in American communications
infrastructure, White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
said in a statement.
But in a clear strike against Huawei, the
Commerce Department separately announced on Wednesday that it had placed
the company and its dozens of affiliates on a list of firms deemed a
risk to national security.
The listing will prevent it from buying American parts and technologies without seeking US government approval.
"This
will prevent American technology from being used by foreign owned
entities in ways that potentially undermine US national security or
foreign policy interests," Ross said in a statement.
The Commerce
Department will also write the rules for reviewing transactions that
fall under the executive order's ban over the next 150 days, according
to administration officials.
The Department said it would work
across the administration on the new rules, consulting with the Attorney
General, Treasury secretary and other agency heads.
The order,
which applies only to future transactions, however did not detail how
the Department will define foreign adversaries and establish criteria to
ban companies from selling equipment to the US, reports The New York
Times.
The executive action also did not address concerns by
rural carriers that the order would hit them particularly hard. Some of
them rely on equipment that already contains parts by Huawei and other
Chinese companies.
The development comes as American officials
have warned allies for months that the US would stop sharing
intelligence if they use Huawei and other Chinese technology to build
the core of their fifth-generation, or 5G, networks.
The
networks promise not only faster cellular service, but also the
connection of billions of "Internet of Things" devices, such as
autonomous cars, security cameras and industrial equipment, to a new
Internet architecture.
Pentagon and American intelligence
officials have warned that Chinese firms will be able to control the
networks and have expressed concerns not only that secure messages could
be intercepted or secretly diverted to China, but that the Chinese
authorities could order Huawei to shut down the networks during any
conflict, disrupting American infrastructure as diverse as gas pipelines
and cellphone networks.
Huawei has denied those charges.
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