Days before the Huawei Temporary General License (TGL) was set to expire, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has extended it for the third time.  The new expiration date is April 1, 2020.

On May 16, 2019, BIS originally placed Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and 68 of its affiliates on the Entity List, which prohibited exports, reexports or transfer (in-country) of items subject to the EAR without an export license.  A few days later, BIS issued a Temporary General License for transactions relating to certain scenarios.  For more information on this listing and the original TGL, see our client alert from May 22, 2019.

The TGL was due to expire on August 19, 2019, but was extended just before expiration.  In that extension, BIS added 46 additional non-US affiliates of Huawei to the Entity List and made certain other conforming changes and clarifications to the scope of the TGL and the terms “third parties” and “fully operational networks.”

BIS’s August extension also made changes to the required certification, reversing it so that it must come from the appropriate Huawei entity, and did away with a certain authorization deemed redundant (Engagement as Necessary for Development of 5G Standards by a Duly Recognized Standards Body).  In terms of clarifications, for example, BIS specified that under the TGL’s authorization of certain exports in support of an existing and fully operational network, end-devices are not considered to be eligible, nor are transfers of equipment for general business purposes.  Under another TGL authorization for personal consumer electronic devices, software for bug fixes, security vulnerability patches, and other updates are included so long as they do not enhance the functional capacities of the original software or equipment.  This extension was originally due to expire on November 18, 2019 but was extended a second time through February 16, 2019.

In the latest extension, BIS issued the pre-publication special filing, applying it to Huawei and the 114 other non-US Huawei affiliates on the Entity List.  Other than minor house-keeping, BIS has made no other substantive changes, including to its authorizations of certain exports for the continued operation of existing networks and equipment, support to existing personal consumer electronic devices and customer premises equipment (CPE), or cybersecurity research and vulnerability disclosure.

If you have any questions about this update or exports to Huawei, please contact one of the authors.