Sales to China represent 65% of Qualcomm's sales revenue. Photo: AFP

China hawks in Washington are cheering the Trump administration’s decision to place Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei on an export blacklist, a move they say will thwart to company’s rise.

But expanding the use of export controls in the high-tech sector has the potential to inflict substantial harm to US companies, a new report found.

US firms are at risk of losing as much as $56 billion worth of export sales over a five-year period, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) said in a report released on Monday. In the worst-case scenario, such restrictions could directly put nearly 75,000 jobs in danger.

The report looked at policies that could affect the broad technology sector, specifically the Export Control Reform Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in August of last year.

The legislation requires the Commerce Department to impose export controls on “emerging and foundational technologies” (EFT) that are “essential to the national security of the United States.”

While the law does not specifically mention China, Beijing’s ambition to become a global leader in emerging technologies is the clear target.

Quantifying the specific harm that the policy will inflict on US firms that supply products to China, and related harm to the economy more broadly, is complicated by the fact that Congress did not define EFTs.

But the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is considering a wide range of products including microprocessors, data analytics and robotics.

The risk, ITIF says, is that broad export controls will substantially reduce the very revenues US technology firms rely on to invest in research and development, thereby undercutting their competitiveness.

The report comes as the ripple effects of an effective export ban on products to China’s Huawei are being felt in financial markets. Shares of US semiconductor firms, which rely heavily on sales to Chinese firms including Huawei, continued to lead losses on Wall Street on Monday.

The placement of Huawei on BIS’s “Entity List” requires US companies to acquire special license to sell products to the Chinese firm. Major tech companies announced that they have suspended business with Huawei, though Reuters reported last week that the US may extend licenses for certain products.

Join the Conversation

50 Comments

  1. It¡¦s really a cool and useful piece of info. I¡¦m glad that you shared this useful info with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.

  2. Thank you for sharing superb informations. Your web site is so cool. I am impressed by the details that you have on this blog. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found just the info I already searched all over the place and just couldn’t come across. What a great website.

  3. Hey there. I found your website by the use of Google even as looking for a similar subject, your site got here up. It seems to be good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks to visit then.

  4. Please let me know if you’re looking for a article author for your blog.
    You have some really great articles and I feel I
    would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d absolutely love to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine.
    Please shoot me an email if interested. Kudos!

  5. I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
    Plz answer back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to find out
    where u got this from. many thanks

  6. Undeniably imagine that that you said. Your favourite justification appeared to be on the web the
    easiest factor to be mindful of. I say to you, I definitely get irked even as people consider worries that they
    plainly don’t recognize about. You managed to hit the
    nail upon the top and also outlined out the entire thing
    with no need side-effects , folks can take a signal.
    Will probably be back to get more. Thank you

  7. I’d like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in penning this blog.
    I am hoping to see the same high-grade blog posts from you in the future as well.
    In fact, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get
    my very own blog now 😉

  8. I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the structure of your
    site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
    But maybe you could a little more in the way of content
    so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only
    having one or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?