The Department of Commerce (DOC) has issued a new rule that seeks to encourage U.S. companies to increase their participation in the development of international standards for new technologies in the telecommunications sector.
“The United States will not cede leadership in global innovation. This action recognizes the importance of harnessing American ingenuity to advance and protect our economic and national security,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement published Monday.
“The Department is committed to protecting U.S. national security and foreign policy interests by encouraging U.S. industry to fully engage and advocate for U.S. technologies to become international standards,” Ross added. TechCrunch reported the new rule will allow U.S. companies to work with Huawei on establishing standards for 5G technology.
The new policy will apply "in legitimate standards development contexts only, and not for commercial purposes” and “is meant to ensure Huawei’s placement on the Entity List in May 2019 does not prevent American companies from contributing to important standards-developing activities despite Huawei’s pervasive participation in standards-development organizations.” The department’s bureau of industry and security put Huawei and its affiliates to the Entity List last year due to national security risks.
