Washington DC, August 20: United States President Donald Trump has on Monday said he doesn’t want American companies to do business with China’s giant telecom Huawei Pvt Ltd, even as his government declared a 90-day extension of “grace” period for Huawei.
After boarded Air Force One in New Jersey on Sunday, Trump told reporters, “At this moment it looks much more like we’re not going to do business.”
“I don’t want to do business at all because it is a national security threat and I really believe that the media has covered it a little bit differently than that,” he said.
Trump added there were some small pieces of Huawei’s business that could get exempted from the broader ban, however, that would be “very complicated”, according to Al-Jazeera news reports.
On Monday, the US commerce department extended a grace period provided to China’s Huawei Technologies Co Limit Private that allows the Chinse company to purchase supplies from American firms in order to service existing customers.
Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said the “temporary general license” will get extended for the Chinese telecom giant for 90 days, further adding American entities will receive additional time to transition away from the equipment of Huawei.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the national economic council, has said on Sunday the Huawei licensing process will be extended for three months by the commerce department as a “good faith” gesture in the midst of broader bilateral trade negotiations with Beijing.
Addressing ‘Meet the Press’ programme of NBC News, Kudlow said: “We’re giving a break to our own companies for three months.”