The US is delaying the decision to allow some American firms to deal with the Chinese tech giant Huawei, an opportunity, promised by US President Donald Trump back in June, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. Notably, Trump announced on 9 August that the US wouldn't be doing any business with the Chinese company, adding that his stance could change once a new US-China trade deal is reached.
The reported delay comes amid rising tensions between the two countries in trade, which recently resulted in China's temporary boycott of US agricultural products. Beijing announced the move on 5 August in the wake of the introduction of new tariffs against its products which are imported by the US.
"Related Chinese companies have suspended purchases of US agricultural products. China's market capacity is large, and it has bright prospects for importing high-quality US agricultural products", China's ministry of commerce stated.
The continuing purchase of US-made agricultural products was one of the critical points for Washington in trade talks with Beijing and, according to Trump, the one which the two couldn't find an understanding on in the last round of negotiations. These disagreements led Trump to introduce 10% tariffs on 300 Billion Dollars of goods and products from China on 1 August.
The US added Chinese tech giant Huawei to the list of companies which American companies can't sell sensitive technologies to, prompting several chip-makers and Google to suspend cooperation with Huawei, leaving its future smartphones without the support of the Android OS. Later in June, Trump promised to issue licenses to allow for the continued sale of non-sensitive technologies to Huawei and the US Department of Commerce reported receiving 50 requests for such licenses.
China is intent on continuing to receive the hundreds of Billions of Dollars they have been taking from the U.S. with unfair trade practices and currency manipulation. So one-sided, it should have been stopped many years ago!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2019
The US crackdown campaign against Huawei sparked criticism from the company and Beijing alike. The tech giant announced its plans to develop despite US restrictions and unveiled one of the first steps in this direction on 9 August by presenting HarmonyOS a replacement for Android, that operates "60% faster" than its rival.
Trump initiated a trade war between the two states in 2018 after he introduced hefty tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminium, with more taxes following in the subsequent year. The US president claims that Beijing abused existing trade agreements with the US to its profit and demanded that the two countries negotiate a new trade agreement.
