U.S. allies unwilling to follow Trump's Huawei ban
U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Wednesday, adding China's telecom giant Huawei to a trade blacklist to restrict its business with U.S. companies. But Washington's allies seem unwilling to follow suit.
Asked by CNBC about Trump's move, French President Emmanuel Macron said that "there is no over-protectionism vis-a-vis any of the big global tech (firms) because we need them to fertilize our ecosystem, we want to be stronger and stronger and create maximum jobs.”
"Our perspective is not to block Huawei or any company, it is to preserve our national security and European sovereignty," Macron commented, indicating his opposition to the launch of technological or trade wars.
Germany previously stated it "will not want to exclude any company" from an upcoming 5G auction.
A security robot with Huawei 5G technology is displayed at an exhibition during the World Intelligence Congress in Tianjin, China on May 16, 2019. / VCG Photo
"The operators all work with Huawei technology in their systems, anyway," said Jochen Homann, the head of the federal network agency of Germany, noting that "if Huawei were excluded from the market, this would delay the rollout of the digital networks," according to the Guardian.
The UK has allowed Huawei to help build the "non-core" infrastructure of the 5G network, while British telecom provider Vodafone already announced it will turn on its 5G service by using Huawei technology in the UK on July 3.
Canada said it is currently making an assessment of security risks of 5G technology and won't be hurried into settling on whether to ban Huawei from wireless network construction in Canada, regardless of Trump's executive order.
"We're proceeding with this in a very methodical way and we'll take the time that's necessary to get it right," said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale of Canada, according to the Globe and Mail.
Huawei has hit back at Trump's executive order.
"Restricting Huawei from doing business in the U.S. will not make the U.S. more secure or stronger," the company said in a statement Thursday.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) also slammed the U.S. move Thursday as "an abuse of national security and unilateral trade sanctions" and urged the U.S. to respect market economy rules and build a transparent and unbiased commercial environment for foreign companies.