The U.S. Commerce Department is about to sign a new regulation allowing U.S. companies to work with Huawei on next-generation 5G network standards, Reuters said on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Last year, Huawei experienced unfair treatment in the United States, which led some engineers of American technology companies to stop working with Huawei on 5G standards. According to U.S. industry and government officials, this puts the United States at a disadvantage.
Two people with knowledge of the situation said the U.S. Department of Commerce drafted a new rule to address the issue after it had been going on for nearly a year. The new rule essentially allows U.S. companies to participate in the activities of a standards body of which Huawei is also a member, although the rule may change in the future, sources close to the matter said.
The source also said that the U.S. Department of Commerce is conducting a final review of the draft and, if approved, will submit it to other agencies for approval. It is unclear how long the process will take, or whether other agencies will object.
Naomi Wilson, senior director of Asia policy at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), which represents companies such as Amazon, Qualcomm and Intel, said: "This situation has been going on for almost a year and I'm confident it will be resolved soon."
Sources close to the matter said the rule is expected to apply only to Huawei and not to other Chinese companies that have been unfairly treated.
In response, both the U.S. Department of Commerce and Huawei declined to comment.
Last month, six U.S. lawmakers sent letters to the U.S. Secretaries of Commerce, State, Defense and Energy expressing the urgent need to issue new regulations to confirm whether U.S. businesses' participation in 5G standards-setting organizations is limited by export control regulations.
