The US Department of Commerce is inviting comments on the procedures its office should follow to enforce Executive Order 13873, signed by President Trump in May to ban US companies from doing business with firms that could pose a threat to national security. The order took particular aim at Chinese telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE, as well as several other Chinese firms. Called “Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain,” it looks to shut out companies that are or that could be controlled or influenced by a foreign adversary.
President Trump declared a national emergency to justify the order, calling on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act, saying these firms could engage in sabotage and subversion, with “catastrophic effects” on the security and resilience of infrastructure critical to the country’s digital economy.
30 days
The public have 30 days to submit a comment. The Department of Commerce said it has chosen to adopt a case-by-case, fact-specific approach to determine which transactions should be prohibited or mitigated. The Secretary of Commerce will use assessments developed by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to evaluate the transactions. A set of rules will be followed, unless safety concerns require a deviation. The secretary will provide an unclassified, written final determination that explains how the decision is consistent with the terms of the Executive Order, and then release a summary of the final determination for the public.
