THE U.S. Commerce Department has granted ZTE Corp.’s request to submit more evidence after the agency banned American companies from selling to the Chinese technology firm, a senior Commerce Department official said Saturday. The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, last week banned American companies from selling to ZTE for seven years. According to U.S. Commerce Department regulations, there is no appeals process, but the agency has “exercised discretion” to let ZTE present additional evidence through an “informal procedure,” the senior official said. It is unclear whether the decision to accept more evidence would provide a chance for resolution between U.S. regulators and Shenzhen-based ZTE. Patrick Moorhead, California-based president and principal analyst of Moor Insights and Strategy, a global technology consulting company, said the U.S. ban on exporting components to ZTE could hurt the development of fifth-generation (5G) smartphones and the plan of building a fast 5G wireless service. “From a 5G telecom equipment point of view, I don’t think this hurts the company too badly, but this will hurt 5G smartphones and any aspirations in the 5G edge data center,” said Moorhead. (SD-Agencies) |