Easing up sanctions against Huawei will have to wait I guess. On Wednesday, the White House banned U.S. federal agencies from buying equipment and obtaining services from the tech giant and at least three other Chinese companies due to national security concerns.

Jacob Wood, a spokesperson for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, explained that the administration intends to “fully comply” with the legislation passed by Congress as part of a defense spending bill passed last year.

“U.S. bans federal purchases of equipment from 5 Chinese firms, including Huawei” by ARIRANG NEWS, YouTube.

The new rule will take effect on August 13 and also concerns Chinese tech giants ZTE, Hytera, and Hikvision, amid fears that the companies could spy for the Chinese government. The rule comes in a year before Congress’ mandated deadline of August 2020 for all federal contractors conducting business with a few “high-risk” Chinese tech firms.

Similarly to the “Entity List ban”, the government will grant waivers to contractors on a case-by-case basis as long as their work does not pose a national security threat.

The trade war continues… 😼⚡🐭