ZTE allowed to resume some U.S. business by Commerce Department

ZTE, the Chinese smartphone maker that was banned from operating in the U.S. this past April, may already be resuming its stateside operations. And it has President Donald Trump to thank for the assist.

According to a document obtained by Bloomberg, due to pressure from the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security has authorized ZTE to resume some business activities as a deal is worked out regarding its ban in the country.

In April, ZTE was banned from importing phone parts from the U.S. for repeatedly misleading the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. The U.S. intelligence community also issued a warning to U.S. consumers, urging them not to purchase phones made by certain Chinese manufacturers — including ZTE — due to spying and security concerns. Because of the ban, ZTE had ceased all U.S. operations in May. The ban was supposed to last for 7 years.

President Trump then caused a bit of controversy when he signaled that he would intervene on the issue as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump made it clear that he would attempt to help the Chinese tech manufacturer, pitting the President against his own Commerce Department.

Soon after, the U.S. government announced it struck a deal with ZTE. The agreement was supposed to lift the sanctions on the Chinese smartphone company and instead hit them with billions of dollars in fines.

But the deal between the Trump administration and ZTE was immediately met with resistance by Congress. The Senate rejected the deal and even went a step further, specifically preventing the Secretary of Defense from doing business with ZTE and Huawei, another Chinese smartphone manufacturer which has had its own trouble doing business in the U.S. 

The Commerce Department’s new ZTE authorization is intended to only give China’s second largest smartphone manufacturer the ability to provide support for current customers as well as make and receive payments involving current company contracts. However, this authorization is only valid until August 1.

What will happen after the Commerce Department’s ZTE authorization expires? A Bloomberg source is quoted as saying that ZTE is expected to be in compliance with U.S. demands by then. It looks like we will have to wait and see.