US semiconductor industry urges Trump to approve Huawei licenses

The U.S. semiconductor industry urged President Donald Trump to ease the ban on sales to Chinese vendor Huawei through the approval of export licenses, according to Bloomberg. “We encourage prompt action to issue approvals for sales that do not implicate national security concerns, particularly where there is foreign availability for competing products,” the Semiconductor Industry Association said in a recent letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Intel, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are among the members of the association. In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce added Huawei to its Entity List, a decision that effectively banned the company from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval. Under the order, Huawei will need a U.S. government license to buy components from U.S. suppliers. At that time, firms including Google, Intel, Qualcomm and Microm halted shipments due to the restrictions. Huawei relies heavily on computer chips imported from U.S. companies. In July, President Donald Trump agreed to grant “timely” licensing decisions to U.S. technology firms that want to sell components and services to Huawei.