Kevin Wolf Quoted in Media on New Huawei Trade Restrictions

Akin Gump international trade partner Kevin Wolf has been quoted by several news outlets on the Trump administration’s decision to impose new restrictions on the Chinese tech giant Huawei.

In its article “U.S.-China Relations Keep Getting Worse. It’s All About Technology,” Barron’s reports that the move curtails Huawei’s access to global chip makers that use U.S. technology, requiring foreign companies to get a U.S. license before supplying certain types of chips to Huawei.

“It appears to be a novel, complex expansion of U.S. export controls,” said Wolf. If there is any “good” news for the chip industry, he noted, it is that the new export restriction is targeted and does not affect other chips or items made by U.S. or foreign companies outside the United States that are now able to be sold to Huawei.

Wolf also highlighted the narrow scope of the rules in the Associated Press article “US adds new sanction on Chinese tech giant Huawei.”

“If a foreign foundry makes a chip based on a Huawei design and U.S. equipment is used to make a chip then it’s controlled, but if a chip is not made from a Huawei design then it is not controlled,” he said.

In The Washington Post article “U.S. tries to narrow loophole that allowed China’s Huawei to skirt export ban,” Wolf pointed out that the key element is in blocking the sale of chips made according to Huawei designs.

The new rule, Wolf said, does not stop U.S. semiconductor manufacturers from selling chips to Huawei that are made outside the United States according to U.S.-company designs. Rather, it stops only the sale of Huawei-designed chips made outside the United States with the help of U.S. equipment.

A chip “based on a Huawei design can’t go forward, but one based on another company’s design can,” Wolf said.