The Commerce Department’s decision to require American companies to get special licenses to sell components to Huawei could make it hard — if not impossible — for the company to obtain key components for its network switching equipment and smartphones. Instead, it will hurt ordinary Americans and businesses by denying them access to leading technology, reducing competition and increasing prices. The ban will financially harm the thousands of Americans employed by the U.S. companies that do business with Huawei, which buys more than $11 billion in goods and services from U.S. companies each year. A total ban on Huawei equipment could eliminate tens of thousands of American jobs. Instead, those operators would be forced to spend their limited funds replacing Huawei equipment with more expensive gear supplied by its competitors (there are two — Ericsson and Nokia — and neither is an American company).

Source: New York Times May 17, 2019 15:45 UTC