Trump blinks again in trade war bluff-fest with China: Huawei gets another 90-day stay of US import execution

Uncle Sam today granted another "extension" to Huawei, allowing the Chinese equipment manufacturer to continue to buy and use American electronic components and software despite being on an "entity list" of banned recipients of US tech. The latest extension comes on the day that the Commerce Department's previous "temporary …

[Martin Gregorie]

Non-optional consequences

If the businesses in your country move their manufacturing capacity overseas to countries with cheaper labour, because profit and greed, there are consequences:

* The folks that used to work in those factories aren't going to be happy: not good for the politicians who allowed or encouraged the overseas move

* Starting a trade war with any country that has taken on the manufacturing capacity your country exported becomes an extremely stupid thing to do, especially if you're a politician and want to get elected again.

* The folks back home get to pay the tariffs you've imposed, as well as any retaliatory taxes imposed by the country supplying your manufacturing capacity. They are not going to like this either, especially if they used to have the jobs that went overseas.

* There will be a day of reckoning, no matter what fake news the 'opinion shapers' feed to voters.

[Your Opinion Matters]

Re: Non-optional consequences

"not good for the politicians who allowed or encouraged the overseas move"

Not that I defend the useless class of creature that is the politician, but in this case I will. Politicians have nothing to do with companies moving where they make things. Companies are free to do as they wish and the Huawei 'scandal' is just leverage against China. You don't see the orange menace threatening Apple over where they make all their phones do you. Telling.

[Flocke Kroes]

Re: Non-optional consequences

Politicians do talk about getting jobs for their constituents. They will often exchange tax cuts for the promise of local jobs. (The promise is promptly forgotten, but not the tax cuts.)

The other non-optional consequence: Cheap labour overseas make goods sufficiently cheaper that people buy them and try not to listen about how that cheap labour is treated.

If you want manufacturing jobs you can start by lobbying for: no minimum wage, no limit on hours, no requirement to pay for overtime, no paid sick leave, no paid holiday, pay can be in company script that can only be spent in the company shop, no minimum age, working children do not have to attend school and all qualifications depend on satisfactory work experience. In fact, all of these can be yours as soon as you emigrate to the wrong country.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Non-optional consequences

> You don't see the orange menace threatening Apple over where they make all their phones do you.

Are you kidding?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Non-optional consequences

Honestly, this is kind of silly.

Trump is Trump and no matter what he does, he'll be attacked for doing it.

The sad truth is that if you look at Huawei's rise to power, you'll see that its not pretty. To be fair, neither was Microsoft or other companies, but Huawei's is a bit more shady.

Beyond that... there is legitimate concern about the company and the threat of embedding spytech into the product. And the same issues exist in other companies as well. So yeah, I see Huawei's products as a threat to privacy along with FB, Google and others.

What makes it worse is that you have a totalitarian regime in China that is backing Huawei all the while it is cracking down on Hong Kong.

Here we have students protesting for freedom, all the while the US has protesters (ANTIFA) who want to reduce our freedoms. Along w companies like Google and FB which remove a voice.

While I may get down voted, please remember, that Freedom means allowing a person to speak and have viewpoints some may find offensive. As long as they are expressing their viewpoints in a legal manner and there aren't any laws against their viewpoints (e.g. Nazism in Germany) then they should be allowed to peaceably voice their opinion. I support the people of Hong Kong and I welcome honest discussions with no safe zone from alleged 'micro-agressions'.

Posted Anon because there are people who feel threatened by the concept of being free.

[steviebuk]

Re: Non-optional consequences

We all agree you have freedom to speak but we all have freedom to down vote.

Down vote just means I disagree with you.

America can claim Huawei are including spying tools but then the US gov wants to put backdoors in encryption.

We use Huawei phones are work as they are cheap. That is the real issue. I suspect some companies have lobbied the great orange one because Huawei, in some areas, give a better service than the likes of Apple. For example, we use the Honor 10 Lite because its cheap, fast, comes with a case and comes with a screen protector applied.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Non-optional consequences

"there is legitimate concern about the company and the threat of embedding spytech into the product"

But apparently not enough of a concern or threat that they really need to be banned, hence the constant deferral. Surely if this was a real threat there wouldn't have been an extension at all. Why give them more time to "spread their spytech" to more US companies and consumers?

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Non-optional consequences

Freedom means allowing a person to speak

..and others to point at them and laugh.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

I want to get Huawei, I want to fry Huawei, yeah, yeah, yeah

Ohhh you fixed it now.....

& let that be a warning to you. [/backup_personality]

[el kabong]

Again, another extension granted, they better use AI to automate the process

or they will soon be in trouble trying to keep up.

Throw a bit of AI in and trump america will win even more than they should, with AI trump america is poised to win real big, so big you'll get bigly sick and tired with winning.

[NogginTheNog]

Re: Again, another extension granted, they better use AI to automate the process

Throw a bit of AI in and trump america will win even more than they should, with AI trump america is poised to win real big, so big you'll get bigly sick and tired with winning.

The fact Trump repeatedly describes stuff like this as "winning" tells you so much about the mentality of this ignorant orange spoiled man-child.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Again, another extension granted, they better use AI to automate the process

Or more about his supporters.

Who said, tell the public a lie and then tell them another lie? Some Jerry chap wasn't it?

[Herbert Fruchtl]

national security

I thought the ban on Huawei was not part of a trade war, but for national security reasons. Is DT trading away the safety of the US' infrastructure for short-term economic gain? Inquiring minds would like to know!

[G.Y.]

j Re: national security

dJt, not dt!

[Nick Kew]

Re: national security

Not US infrastructure: they never had much US market share anyway.

A rolling 90-day extension allows US companies to supply Huawei, but doesn't permit Blighty to give the green light to our telcos.

[WilliamBurke]

Re: national security

You mean he lied about the security bit? Never!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: national security

I thought he lied about the Chinese paying the tariffs part?

You don;'t think he is capable of two lies simultaneously ?

Have they upgraded him ?

[MJB7]

Android updates

One big problem I see for Huawei is people who are about to buy a new phone may decide to avoid a Huawei because the embargo would cut them off from Android updates and access to apps in the play-store. A rolling 90-extension never actually cuts people off (so they don't get pissed), but might cause enough doubt that market share will stop growing. That might be very attractive to a number of competitors.

On the other hand, how many people are paying enough attention that they will notice the potential risk?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Android updates

Other than a few fans buying them on AliExpress nobody bin the USA has hauwei phones.

In their Asian markets this is all good publicity, nobody doubts they wouldn't be able to get a supply from somewhere

[ChrisC]

Re: Android updates

IIRC when this whole kerfuffle kicked off, the implications for owners of existing Huawei devices was only that they'd be blocked from any further OS updates, but not also blocked from accessing the Play Store. It's still not an ideal position for Huawei to be in, but it does make their devices somewhat less undesirable to potential new buyers than if it was guaranteed they'd be cut off entirely from Google once (if it ever does) the ban comes into force.

[IsJustabloke]

Re: Android updates

My P20Pro was updated over the weekend to include July '19 security updates so I'm not really sure how it could be a concern.

you also seem to be forgetting that the majority of the mobey buying public do not give a stuff about updates, they do care about cheap though.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Android updates

A flagship phone guaranteed to be completely cut off from Google has a certain appeal.

[Mystic Megabyte]

Make assholes greedy again

"and certain items of footwear and clothing"

That would be Trumps maga hats and his wifes' "fashion" items.

[Derezed]

Re: Make assholes greedy again

He has more than one wife?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Make assholes greedy again

About 3 so far, IIRC

[gbshore]

Why a bunch of crap... no one blinked here MATE.... this delay was to give American companies time to adjust their supply and vendor change. It keeps getting harder trying to read this so slanted Euro view ... all this rag does is bash Trump, just like the Progressive Socialists here in the US... be less critical of what’s going on here... you have your own shit going on with Brexit etc....

[Pascal Monett]

And you have Fox News to get back to.

If you don't like The Reg, you don't have to come back again and again.

[JohnMurray]

Please do not slam the [Register] door on your way out [screaming America First], I have a headache.

[sabroni]

why a bunch of crap

Because it's your best sentence ever?

[Spanners]

no one blinked here

...this delay was to give American companies time to adjust their supply and vendor change...

I am sure that there are people believe that in the USA.. There may even be some in the UK - as you say, some of us voted for Brexit. People here probably won't though.

...this so slanted Euro view...

It's not a "Euro view". It's a view that the USA is not the only place with anything to say. Many/most people here work with technology. We know the USA exists and is a big player in many spheres across the planet. Donald Trump and his friends are doing a lot to change that - just like Boris Johnson and his chums are doing here.

[Martin Summers]

I do think Huawei could be dodgy and I wouldn't have them in the core of a critical network. However the longer these extensions are granted the more I'm realising there's not actually a security threat with what they're banning or they'd cut them dead immediately and stick by it. Someone above made a good point about pissing off the manufacturing outsource base of your country. With the best will in the world Trump isn't going to get that replicated anywhere else, let alone within the USA. So it's a very dangerous game of chicken now.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Do you think Motorola (also Chinese owned) are dodgy and should you give them all of the UK's emergency service comms?

[Martin Summers]

"Do you think Motorola (also Chinese owned) are dodgy and should you give them all of the UK's emergency service comms?"

I didn't actually know they were Chinese owned now, so in answer to your questions then yes probably and no I don't (mostly on the strength that their phones are crap). Besides I don't think it's as fruitful for a state to spy on our emergency services compared to being hidden in a core government network. Huawei also have very different heritage.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

But if Trump's arguement is that Chinese companies can be forced to obey the Chinese equivalent of National Security Letters to bring down the west then that doesn't only apply to Huawei it must apply to all Chinese companies ?

[Martin Summers]

Yes, it does.

[Joe Gurman]

I hate to post anything that vaguely suggests agreement with Trump....

....but this was, ostensibly at least, done for a valid reason: US rural telecoms, who are generally not long on cash have invested in Huawei kit because it's so much cheaper than competitors', need the time to order and install hardware from alternative vendors. Some even qualified for federal grants only if they kept the price paid for their hardware low, so they're in effect being whiplashed by government policies.

And with an election coming next year, it'd be difficult for any Republican administration to antagonize any business sector and their customer base in solid red states who say things like, '"My members say, ‘We’re patriots, if you tell us it’s a national security issue, we’ll do it, but please provide us with the funding,’” [said] Carri Bennet, general counsel to the Rural Wireless Association, which represents companies in rural parts of Montana, Wyoming, Alabama and other states.(Source: The Washington Post [hardly a Trump echo chamber], PowerPost Cybersecurity 202 column by Joseph Marks, 20 August, 2019)

So this isn't quite a clueless as one might think from this article.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: I hate to post anything that vaguely suggests agreement with Trump....

Don't worry they will all get government grants to buy the best American technology

why-a-one-room-west-virginia-library-runs-a-20000-cisco-router