Google, US budget office seek Huawei ban reprieve

Google and the White House budget office are among the organisations that are seeking reprieve from ban on doing business with Chinese technology company Huawei, according to media reports.

Google has asked to be exempted from any ban on Huawei, warning the Donald Trump administration that it would risk compromising US national security if it went ahead with export restrictions on Huawei, according to a report in Financial Times.

Google executives worry that the ban would force Huawei to develop its own version of Android and the "hybrid version" of Android could pose security risks, according to the report.

In May, the Trump administration announced a fresh set of measures targeting Huawei, including giving the commerce department power to ban the Chinese firm from selling 5G equipment in the US, as well as a ban on American companies selling their products to the Chinese group, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

After the ban was imposed, Google suspended business with Huawei, cutting it off from potential updates to Android. Since then, however, the administration has granted a 90-day reprieve to companies to adjust.

In a separate case, the White House's acting budget chief is pushing for a delay in implementation of key provisions of the law that restricts the US government's business with Huawei, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday.

The ban could lead to a "dramatic reduction" in the number of companies that would be able to supply the government, and would disproportionately affect US companies in rural areas where Huawei gears were popular, Russell T. Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in letters to Vice-President Mike Pence and 9 Congressmen.

Vought has asked for restrictions on contractors and on federal loan and grant recipients to take effect 4 years from the passage of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), instead of the present 2 years, to give affected companies time to respond and give feedback.

The NDAA, signed by the US President in 2018, includes a ban on US agencies, and on recipients of federal grants and loans, from doing business with Chinese firms or with contractors that make substantial use of the companies' products.

--IANS

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