Senate Republicans drop bid to block Trump from helping Chinese telecom giant ZTE [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

By Erica Werner
July 20 at 3:20 PM

Senate Republicans have dropped their attempt to reimpose U.S. sanctions on the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE, lawmakers said Friday, a victory for President Trump as congressional Republicans abandoned a rare effort to thwart his agenda.

The retreat means ZTE, a company found guilty of selling U.S. goods to Iran in violation of sanctions, will duck Commerce Department penalties that bar U.S. companies from doing business with it. U.S. and Chinese officials had said those penalties would effectively put ZTE out of business.

Trump had ordered his own Commerce Department to lift the penalties as part of a broader negotiating strategy with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but senators voted to reimpose them as part of a sweeping defense policy bill they passed last month.

But the House version of the defense bill did not include the same provision. And senators have now decided to leave it out of the final compromise bill, agreeing to language advanced by the House instead. The House language bars U.S. government agencies and contractors from doing business with ZTE, but allows the company to continue doing business with private U.S. firms.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/senate-republicans-cave-to-trump-on-deal-with-chinese-telecom-giant-zte/2018/07/20/28ae5820-8c3f-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html