US-China trade war: Huawei has 130 US suppliers vying for its business, report says

The US Commerce Department received no less than 130 applications from companies which wanted to sell goods made in the country to Chinese tech company Huawei. Huawei has become one of the focus points of the US-China trade war, which continues to escalate every day and whose reverberations can be felt far and wide throughout the global economy.

According to a new report, US companies are lining up to do business with Huawei after president Trump announced some relaxations – some US suppliers will be allowed to sell to Huawei, even though the company will remain blacklisted.

Reuters reported on Tuesday, that more than 130 US companies have applied to the Commerce Department for licenses to sell to Huawei. However, none of the applications have been approved yet.

The trade war is an effort on the part of Trump to narrow the huge gap between US imports and exports to and from China. The US currently imports $550 billion worth of Chinese goods annually while it sells goods worth only $75 billion to the country. While it started on a very high voltage, the trade war seems to have calmed down in recent days. At the G7 meet in Biarritz, France, Trump indicated that he had some regrets regarding locking horns with China, but the State Department then stated that he meant that he regretted that he hadn't started it earlier.

In June, Trump had stated post a G20 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would provide some relaxations to companies including Huawei, but, he is yet to abide by his word. According to former Commerce Department official William Reinsch, the department is looking to Trump for guidance. Reinsch told Reuters, "Nobody in the executive branch knows what [Trump] wants and they're all afraid to make a decision without knowing that."

Huawei's fate is yet to be sealed, but it is sure that some US companies including Qualcomm, Intel and Microsoft have started feeling the heat as they supply around $11 billion worth of goods to Huawei every year, which may be the reason for Trump's indecisiveness.