Huawei Technologies said that the recent decision by a number of standards and industry organizations to partially suspend collaboration with the company will not have an impact in Huawei’s daily operations.
Huawei said in a statement that the suspension of technical collaboration between these entities and the firm had been motivated by political pressure from the Trump administration.
“We are disappointed by these decisions, but they will not have an effect on our daily operations. We will continue to provide our customers with top-quality products and services,” Huawei said.
Huawei also noted that the firm is an active member in over 400 standards organizations, industry alliances, and open source communities.
“Currently, our work with the majority of standards organizations proceeds as usual,” the company said. “Moving forward, we will keep doing our part and work with standards and industry organizations to build a robust industry ecosystem for everyone.”
According to a report by Nikkei Asian Review, the Wi-Fi Alliance, which sets the standards for wireless technology, said it had “temporarily restricted” Huawei’s participation in the entity’s activities due to the export ban recently imposed by the U.S. government. Some of the key members of the alliance include include Apple, Qualcomm, Broadcom and Intel.
Also, the SD Association, which develops the standards of the SD card, said it had suspended Huawei’s participation.
“The SD Association is complying with U.S. Department of Commerce orders,” an association’s spokesperson said, according to the report.
“Huawei has not violated the articles of association for any of these organizations, and yet a small group of them have decided to suspend collaboration without any legal basis. Their actions go against the very principles that they purport to hold, and undermine their credibility as international organizations. Ultimately, decisions like this will result in fragmented standards, including fragmentation in information and communications standards, and will only serve to drive up costs and risks for everyone along the value chain,” Huawei said.
The Trump administration recently confirmed that the U.S. Department of Commerce added Huawei to its Entity List, a decision that effectively banned the company from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval. Under the order, Huawei will need a U.S. government license to buy components from U.S. suppliers.
However, since then, the administration announced that it would ease certain export restrictions recently imposed on Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies, in a move to give operators time to make other arrangements, the entity said in a release.
Also last week, President Trump suggested that current trade negotiations between the U.S. and China could include Huawei, although the vendor allegedly poses a threat to U.S. national security.
“If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei possibly being included in some form of or some part of a trade deal,” Trump reportedly said during a White House press briefing, although he still referred to Huawei as “very dangerous.”
The trade talks between the two countries are stalled after they failed to reach an agreement in the latest round of negotiations in Washington in early May.
However, Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei said in an interview with Bloomberg that Huawei had nothing to do with the U.S.-China trade war.
“The U.S. has never bought products from us. Even if the U.S. wants to buy our products in the future, I may not sell to them. There is no need for negotiation,” said Ren.
