The United States and China have a tentative deal to save embattled Chinese telecom company ZTE, days after the two nations announced a truce in their trade standoff, The Wall Street Journal reported May 22, 2018. Details remain to be hammered out, but according to the general outlines of the agreement, Washington would lift a crippling ban on selling US components to the company, which in turn would make major changes in its management, executive board and possibly pay additional fines, according to the report.
/ AFP PHOTO / Johannes EISELE
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The White House says it has reached a deal with Chinese telecoms giant ZTE that would lift crippling sanctions slapped on the company, The New York Times reported Friday.
The news comes as the US prepares to send a trade delegation back to Beijing next week to continue talks aimed at defusing a potentially serious trade dispute with China, after the countries exchanged huge tit-for-tat threats on imports.
The reported terms of the ZTE deal closely match the conditions US President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross described earlier this week as a means for the firm to escape the export ban that nearly shuttered its operations.
However, it seemed likely to provoke a harsh reaction in Congress, as lawmakers have been critical of the administration for signaling it might ease the pressure on a company that violated US sanctions on Iran and North Korea and repeatedly lied to US officials.
ZTE was fined $1.2 billion in March 2017, but last month Washington banned the sale of crucial US components to the company after finding it had lied multiple times and failed to take actions against employees responsible for sanctions violations.
Under the new deal brokered by the Commerce Department, according to the Times, ZTE would pay a substantial fine, hire American compliance officers to be placed at the firm and make changes to its current management team.
Even while US officials said the ZTE penalties were a national security issue separate from the trade talks with Beijing, Trump said Tuesday he was looking at easing the tough sanctions on ZTE “as a favor” to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump said he envisioned a new fine on the company of as much as $1.3 billion as well as a management shake-up and strict new rules.
– Alternatives –
On Thursday, Ross said that at Trump’s request, his department was looking at alternatives to the harsh penalty he choose to impose.
But, he said, “if we do decide to go forward with an alternative, what it literally would involve would be in planting people of our choosing into the company to constitute a compliance unit and that unit would report back to the Department of Commerce.”
Top Republican and Democrat senators have denounced the compromise and one even vowed to block it.
The reprieve for ZTE came just after Washington and Beijing called a halt to a spiraling trade dispute sparked by US accusations of China’s unfair practices and the alleged theft of US technology, with Washington suspending plans to impose tariffs on as much as $150 billion in Chinese imports.
Trump also faced accusations of quid-pro-quo after pledging to soften sanctions on ZTE just days after AFP reported a Chinese state firm would pour cash into a Trump-tied real estate venture in Indonesia.
Lawmakers were incensed by Trump’s offer last week to rescue the company and Chinese jobs, which came via Twitter in the midst of the trade talks with Beijing. The president angrily denied back-pedaling.
Top Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who chairs a key subcommittee on foreign relations, denounced the move, and vowed lawmakers would work on “veto-proof legislation” to stop the deal.
Tweeting again on Friday, Rubio again accused the administration of reaching an agreement that was beneficial to China.
“It is a great deal… for #ZTE & China. #China crushes US companies with no mercy & they use these telecomm companies to spy & steal from us,” he said on Twitter.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also decried the deal.
“If the administration goes through with this reported deal, President Trump would be helping make China great again. Would be a huge victory for President Xi, and a dramatic retreat by Pres Trump,” he tweeted. “Both parties in Congress should come together to stop this deal in its tracks.”
Asked by AFP for comment, a Commerce spokesman said no information was available.