US approves billions worth of licenses for Huawei and SMIC

According to Reuters latest report, the newest document released by the US Congress reveals that both Huawei and SMIC have received billions worth of licenses.

File photo: Huawei logo on a MateBook 14s Laptop+ device

US tech licenses for Huawei and SMIC

This means that suppliers of Chinese telecom giant Huawei and China's top chipmaker SMIC were able to sell them US-made goods and technologies despite being on the US trade blacklist.

Huawei got 113 export licenses worth USD 61 billion (around PHP 3.1 trillion) while Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) was granted 188 licenses with nearly USD 42 billion of value.

The data showed that Huawei has a 69 percent of approval rate while more than 9 out of 10 license applications were granted to SMIC during the same period.

Reuters revealed that the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday voted to grant a request by its top Republican member Michael McCaul to release the licensing data, which it received from the Commerce Department in May.

However, details about the current licenses that were approved and denied have not been disclosed.

The move enraged anti-China officials in US who made a concerted effort in depriving Chinese companies of access to advanced US technology.

The Commerce Department stressed that the approved license applications do not represent actual shipments and around half of all licenses are used. The majority of the licenses granted did not authorize the shipment of sensitive items as well. the licenses are generally good for four years.

Huawei and SMIC have yet to release a statement.

Source: Reuters