The Commerce Department plans to amend its Foreign Direct Product Rule in a plan to target Huawei Technologies and its acquisition of semiconductors by closing a "highly technical loophole" the Chinese company has been using, department Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday.
"There has been a very highly technical loophole through which Huawei has been in able, in effect, to use U.S. technology," Ross told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo.
According to the Commerce Department, the loophole has allowed Huawei to continue using U.S. software and technology in its semiconductor designs, even though it was put on a blacklist in May 2019, reports Reuters.
The change means that foreign companies using U.S. chipmaking equipment must obtain a license before they supply certain chips to Huawei or one of its affiliates.
The Commerce Department has also extended a temporary license that was to have expired Friday in order to allow U.S. companies operating wireless networks in rural parts of the country to continue doing business with Huawei through Aug. 13.
"They also needed [money] for maintenance and for upgrades, so we are very pleased that Congress has appropriated $1 billion to help the rural telecoms to wean themselves."
Ross said that the government wants the telecoms to make it clear what they are doing to wean themselves from Huawei.
The secretary also discussed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's move to bring vital suppliers to Arizona, where a plant that will produce computer chips "on the cutting edge of technology" is being built.
The factory, being built at a cost of $12 billion, plans to employ 1,600 workers and produce 5-nanometer chips, which, Ross explained, will be smaller and more powerful than the 7-nanometer chips that are considered state of the art.
Ross said the company "hopes to bring their supply chain with them" and their eight key suppliers. The move to Arizona should "facilitate even more activity."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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