US postpones meeting on potential measures to restrict Huawei from using American technology

The meeting is now expected to be postponed on 11th March

The US government has postponed a high-level meeting that was scheduled to take place last week to discuss potential restriction on foreign sales of American technology to Huawei and China.

According to Reuters, this critical meeting was planned for 28^th February, but it was later postponed until 11^th March.

The meeting is expected to be attended by US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who could discuss how to expand US regulations to restrict the Chinese telecom firm from using products that are based on US technology.

An interdepartmental meeting was also held last week to discuss national security and China's exports. During the meeting, senior officials from various government agencies discussed proposals to restrict sale of chips to Huawei and plans to sell commercial aircraft part to China's new airliners. No recommendations were, however, made on how to handle various issues related to Huawei and China.

In a series of tweets earlier this month, President Trump appeared to reject the plans of his own administration to block sales of GE-made jet engines to Chinese airlines.

"We don't want to make it impossible to do business with us," Trump said in a tweet.

"That will only mean that orders will go to someplace else," he added.

In May 2019, the Trump administration added Huawei to the Department of Commerce's Entity List, effectively banning the company from US communications networks.

The ban enabled the government to regulate sales of US-made goods, as well as a limited number of foreign-made items containing US technology, to Huawei. But, a major concern for the government is that under current regulations, foreign supply chains remain beyond the reach of the US authorities, thereby limiting the impact of the ban.

In January, it was reported that Washington was close to publishing new regulations that would help block shipments of foreign-made products with US technology to the Chinese firm. The US Department of Commerce sent a regulation to the Office of Management and Budget to remove a loophole that enabled American firms to sell their products to the Chinese telecoms firm from overseas facilities.

The US government wants to expand its power to block foreign shipments of products containing US technology to Huawei by making changes to some key rules.

Despite US restrictions on Huawei, the company reported an 18 per cent increase in revenue for 2019, while its smartphone shipments also jumped by 20 per cent last year.