White House Considers Executive Order to Ban Huawei and ZTE in U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is considering an executive order in the new year to declare a national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE, three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

It would be the latest step by the Trump administration to cut Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd [HWT.UL] and ZTE Corp, two of China’s biggest network equipment companies, out of the U.S. market.

The United States says the companies work at the behest of the Chinese government and that their equipment could be used to spy on Americans.

Huawei and ZTE did not return requests for comment. Both in the past have denied that their products are used to spy.

Rural operators in the United States are among the biggest customers of Huawei and ZTE, and worry that they may also have to rip out existing Chinese-made equipment without compensation. Industry officials are divided on whether the administration could legally compel operators to do that.

The executive order, which has been under consideration for more than eight months, could be issued as early as January and would direct the Commerce Department to block U.S. companies from buying equipment from foreign telecommunications makers that pose significant national security risks, sources from the telecoms industry and the administration said...

Read more: Exclusive: White House mulls new year executive order to bar Huawei, ZTE purchases | Reuters

 

[Barman58]

Could be interesting if the Chinese hit back, a lot of Apple, and other hardware, is built in China, if that option was not available then Apple profits would plummet, of course there are other cheap industrial options such as India, although the quality of the manufacture is normally lower. I doubt that the administration's dream of manufacturing everything in the US, which could be an underlying thought for this possible ban, will be possible, American workers will simply not work for what the current Chinese employees do, so costs to the consumer will rise.

Obviously if the cost of infrastructure for the ISP sector raises these costs will have to be passed on to the customer to keep the companies running, so the internet will get more expensive again

 

[wither 3]

Interesting thing is that the companies who previously manufactured things here are now shell companies with the same name, having the same stuff made overseas but charging the same price for their products as if they were made here and they were paying American wages. In other words, we have been and will continue to be, screwed by the shell companies.

I don't know if the United States has the capabilities, that China has, to manufacture things like motherboards, graphics cards, memory cards, solid state drives, and CPUs.