Huawei has filed a legal motion to try and reverse the against the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, the ruling which blocked U.S. government agencies from buying Huawei products.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the motion argues that the ruling was unconstitutional.
The NDAA bill, passed in summer 2018, places a ban on federal agencies and their contractors from using Huawei equipment. The ruling was based on supposed national security concerns, due to Huawei’s links with the Chinese government. Huawei has denied that it is controlled by China’s government, military or intelligence services.
This is just one of the many challenges Huawei faces. Earlier this month, President Trump passed an executive order stopping U.S. corporations from buying telecoms equipment from companies classed as national security risks. Huawei was also added to a Commerce Department list stopping it from acquiring tech developed by U.S. companies. This has affected relationships with companies including ARM, Intel, Google, Qualcomm and others. Huawei is currently operating under a 90-day reprieve from the ruling.
“Today it is telecom and Huawei, tomorrow it could be your company, your industry, your customers,” Huawei’s chief legal officer, Song Liuping, told reporters on Wednesday. Song says that Huawei is looking for ways to battle the U.S. ban.
How does this hurt Apple?
You might wonder why we’re covering Huawei news on an Apple site, but the fate of the two companies is possibly interconnected. Huawei last year overtook Apple as the world’s no. 2 smartphone maker, in terms of number of handsets sold.
More significantly, some have suggested that a crackdown on Huawei products could wind up hurting Apple. That’s because it could trigger a retaliation from Beijing looking to place similar restrictions on a U.S. tech giant, such as Apple.
Huawei’s founder (and noted Apple fan) recently said that he does not want to see China ban Apple products.
Source: Reuters
