{"id":252455,"date":"2018-06-19T07:15:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T05:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=252455"},"modified":"2018-06-19T07:16:08","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T05:16:08","slug":"zte-tanks-after-us-lawmakers-restore-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/252455\/zte-tanks-after-us-lawmakers-restore-penalties\/","title":{"rendered":"ZTE tanks after US lawmakers restore penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ZTE Corp dived 24% after American lawmakers green-lit a bill to restore severe penalties on the Chinese telecoms gear-maker, potentially up-ending a deal struck with President Donald Trump to allow it to get back in business.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s Hong Kong shares slid to their lowest since July 2016, while its Shenzhen stock fell its 10-percent daily limit on Tuesday. The selloff ensued after the US Senate passed legislation on Monday that would restore penalties on the company, complicating Trump\u2019s efforts to ease sanctions on ZTE after it pays a record fine and reshuffles management.<\/p>\n

A settlement on the issue is also deemed pivotal to tense US-Chinese negotiations over trade.<\/p>\n

The wrangling over China\u2019s second-largest telecom equipment maker produced a rare instance of Republicans allying with Democrats to defy Trump.<\/p>\n

Reinstating a ban on ZTE\u2019s purchases of American technology would cut off access to the chips and components it needs to build smartphones and networking equipment – essentially a death sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time Congress has really stood up to him on a trade issue, and it\u2019s clear they are angry,\u201d said Bill Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. \u201cThere will be a lot of congressional resistance to weakening the ZTE amendment, but I would not be surprised to see a compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bipartisan measure, part of a defense bill, passed 85-10 and came two days before Trump was to host Republican members of Congress to discuss ways that would allow ZTE to get back into business.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s agreement with ZTE was struck after the US in April blocked its access to US suppliers, saying it had broken a sanctions settlement and then lied about it.<\/p>\n

That prompted the company to declare its operations were grinding to a halt just weeks later. A settlement was deemed a key Chinese demand as the world\u2019s two largest economies try to avoid a trade war and negotiate the denuclearization of North Korea.<\/p>\n

After a personal plea from Chinese President Xi Jinping to help the company get back into business, Trump last month instructed the Commerce Department to find a solution to save ZTE.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration wants legislators to modify the Senate language on ZTE in the defense bill, once the House and Senate begin work to merge their versions of the legislation. Lawmakers hope to wrap up negotiations by the end of July.<\/p>\n

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in recent weeks have tried to persuade lawmakers of the administration\u2019s approach to ZTE, but legislators said the deal failed to address their national-security concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve articulated our desire to better educate members about the ZTE action by Commerce, and we expect to address it in conference,\u201d White House legislative liaison Marc Short said last week.\u201cWe think we can fix it in conference,\u201d Short added, referring to the process when differences in House and Senate bills are reconciled.<\/p>\n

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Read: ZTE slumps after agreeing $1 billion fine and major overhaul<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZTE Corp dived 24% after American lawmakers green-lit a bill to restore severe penalties on the Chinese telecoms gear-maker, potentially up-ending a deal struck with President Donald Trump to allow it to get back in business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":251517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,705],"class_list":["post-252455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-headline","tag-zte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252461,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252455\/revisions\/252461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}