US telecoms rebuff Trump's latest anti-Huawei plans

US technology companies have rebuffed a Trump administration plan that would require US firms to stop sourcing supplies from some Chinese firms despite the risk that they might fall afoul of competition laws.

According to sources cited by the Financial Times, the US State Department asked telecoms carriers and chipmakers to sign up to a set of principles which would have, in effect, shut out Huawei and possibly other Chinese companies deemed to have broken sanctions or firms whose domestic intelligence agencies might have accessed their data.

The initiative, led by Keith Krach, under-secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, a former tech industry executive in charge of the Office of Global Partnerships, was aimed at securing support for what the department called a Global Digital Trust Standard.

The FT’s source said that the plan was obviously aimed at Huawei in what looked like the “latest attempt by the Trump administration to get us to shut out Huawei”.

The source added: “But if we had come together to act against a global competitor like this, we would almost certainly have been sued.”

In the past few months, Krach had approached 13 different companies and trade associations to ask them to sign up to the principles, including big telecoms carriers such as AT&T and Verizon and several large chipmakers.

The State Department reportedly said: “Working in conjunction with Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo, under-secretary Krach has been engaging with leaders to leverage the innovation and resources of the private sector to advance global economic security and prosperity around the world.

“As part of that effort, he invited leaders from the business, education and social sectors to a gathering at the state department this month which was postponed due to scheduling conflicts until early 2020.”

Originally, the Trump administration had given companies until 27 December to submit their comments on the proposals, but given the great unease that it had triggered among senior business leaders, a group of 27 industry groups had asked for that deadline to be extended by two months.