US govt extends comment period for Huawei

The US government has given additional four weeks for the public to comment on extending a temporary license that will allow US companies to continue doing business with Chinese tech giant Huawei.

The decision was announced by the US Department of Commerce on Wednesday, the last day of the public comment period the federal agency set on March 10, when it extended the temporary license for Huawei through May 15.

"Today, the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced an extension of the public comment period on Huawei Temporary General License Extensions through April 22," the Commerce Department said in a statement.

Huawei and dozens of its affiliates were added in May 2019 to the Commerce Department's Entity List, a trade blacklist based on allegations of security risks, which restricts the sale or transfer of US technologies to Huawei.

But such restriction has since been loosened for five times.

The Commerce Department said BIS is seeking "input on the continuing need for, and scope of, possible future extensions" of the TGL for Huawei and its non-US affiliates on the Entity List.

The department has received requests from industry to allow for additional comments, and is granting the request in support of robust consideration of future extensions of the TGL, the federal agency said.