ZTE talking with parties on US export curbs news
Print Edition
CHINESE telecommunication equipment maker ZTE Corp said yesterday it is communicating aggressively with all parties after media reports that the company faces US export restrictions.
The statement came a day after Reuters reported, according to documents the news agency saw, that the US Commerce Department is set to place export restrictions on ZTE for allegedly violating US export controls on Iran.
The restrictions will make it difficult for the company to acquire US products by requiring ZTE’s suppliers to apply for an export license before shipping any American-made equipment or parts to ZTE. According to a department notice that will be published this week in the US Federal Register, the license applications generally will be denied.
The curbs will take effect tomorrow, Reuters has learned, and apply to any company worldwide that wants to ship US-made products to ZTE Corp in China. Those companies are not the target of the export curbs on ZTE.
“This is a significant new burden on trade with ZTE,” a senior official at the Commerce Department said. The official declined to comment on whether the US government might take further action against ZTE.
The department investigated ZTE for alleged export-control violations following reports by Reuters in 2012 that the company had signed contracts to ship millions of dollars worth of hardware and software from some of America’s best-known tech firms to Iran’s largest telecom carrier, Telecommunication Co of Iran, and a unit of the consortium that controls it.
The US product makers — which included Microsoft Corp, IBM, Oracle Corp and Dell Inc — have all said they were not aware of the Iranian contracts. It is not clear if any of these companies still do business with ZTE.
Washington has long banned the sale of US-made tech products to Iran. The department’s investigation focused on whether ZTE had acquired American products through front companies and then shipped them to Iran, a violation of US sanctions.
The Commerce Department investigators obtained internal ZTE documents — some marked by the company “Top Secret” — outlining an alleged sanctions-busting scheme. Reuters reviewed some of the documents.
The senior Commerce Department official declined to comment on whether ZTE had carried through with the alleged scheme.
The day after the first Reuters article was published in March 2012, a ZTE spokesman said the company would “curtail” its business in Iran.
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