President Donald Trump has waded into a row over Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE, promising to get the firm “back into business fast” after it was hit by a ban on buying American hardware and software.
P resident Donald Trump has waded into a row over Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE, promising to get the firm “back into business fast” after it was hit by a ban on buying American hardware and software.
The company said it was halting all of its major business activities in the US last week after the country’s Department of Commerce issued a so-called denial order, prohibiting American exporters from doing business with it, but appeared to have been thrown a lifeline by Mr Trump yesterday.
The US president said on Twitter: “President Xi of China and I are working together to give massive Chinese phone company ZTE a way to get back into business fast.
“Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce department has been instructed to get it done.”
The order followed $1.2bn (£900m) of fines against the company last year after it was found to have breached trade embargoes against Iran and North Korea by buying components from US firms, packaging them together into its equipment and selling them on to the ostracised countries.
ZTE was also handed a seven-year suspended denial of export privileges, which the commerce department decided to activate last month after determining the company had lied about its handling of the matter.
