"We don’t want to make it impossible to do business with us," Trump tweeted. "That will only mean that orders will go to someplace else. As an example, I want China to buy our jet engines, the best in the World...."

The United States cannot, & will not, become such a difficult place to deal with in terms of foreign countries buying our product, including for the always used National Security excuse, that our companies will be forced to leave in order to remain competitive. We want to sell... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2020

The proposals have fueled concerns that U.S. companies could lose market share to foreign competitors and deprive firms of an important source of revenue to fund research and development. Opponents of the proposals argue that further restricting exports of non-sensitive technology products will negatively impact the ability of U.S. tech firms to remain dominant in semiconductors and other industries.

"We applaud President Trump's tweets supporting U.S. companies being able to sell products to China and opposing proposed regulations that would unduly curtail that ability," said Semiconductor Industry Association president and CEO John Neuffer. "As we have discussed with the administration, sales of non-sensitive, commercial products to China drive semiconductor research and innovation, which is critical to America's economic strength and national security."

Trump told reporters on Tuesday before leaving on a trip that some of the proposals that have been put on his desk "have nothing to do with national security, including with chipmakers and various others."

"I’ve been very tough on Huawei," he said. "But that doesn’t mean we have to be tough on everybody that does something. We want to be able to sell all of this incredible technology — we’re number one in the world. We want to be able to sell to other countries."

The president's statements come a week after a "phase one" trade deal with China went into effect. Trump celebrated the agreement as a major victory after Beijing agreed to buy up to $200 billion worth of American agricultural, manufacturing and energy goods withing two years.

The Commerce Department is considering denying permission for General Electric to export aircraft engines to China for the country's first commercial airliner, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

POLITICO reported last week that the Pentagon was considering reversing its opposition to a rule that will make it even harder to do business with Huawei. The Chinese telecommunications firm was blacklisted by the Commerce department last year but U.S. firms have found ways to maintain business with the company by shipping products to be further assembled in other countries.

"The United States cannot, & will not, become such a difficult place to deal with in terms of foreign countries buying our product, including for the always used National Security excuse, that our companies will be forced to leave in order to remain competitive," Trump tweeted.

Despite his view on export controls, Trump has used national security as a justification for imposing tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum and has threatened restrictions on imports of automobiles for the same reason.

"I will say that we’re not going to be sacrificing our companies for all of the growth and everything else that they’re ready [for] — they’re exploding, they’re doing so well — by using a fake term of national security," he told reporters. "It’s got to be real national security."

