In its ongoing effort to monitor issues related to Huawei for the benefit of the standards community, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has issued the following announcement:
As reported by ANSI on August 21, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) extended a waiver to U.S. companies for limited business with Huawei and removed paragraph (c)(4) "Engagement as necessary for development of 5G standards by a duly recognized standards body" from the 90 day Temporary General License that was effective May 20, 2019. In doing so, BIS determined that existing provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) "suffice for purposes of addressing the application of the Entity List-based license requirements to activities in connection with standards development bodies, including 5G standards bodies."
In its August 21 news item, ANSI called to the attention of those organizations engaged in standards developing activities who believe their activities might be subject to EAR restrictions, the BIS General Advisory Opinion "Concerning Prohibited Activities in the Standards Setting or Development Context When a Listed Entity Is Involved."
The BIS Opinion notes that there are different types of standards bodies and their practices and procedures can vary. The Opinion notes, for example, that "a variety of activities in the standards setting or development context are prohibited absent a license or other authorization from BIS if any of the listed Huawei entities (or another listed entity) is involved" and provides high level guidance on such prohibited activities. The Opinion confirms that information, including technology, that is made available to the public without restrictions upon its further dissemination would not be subject to the EAR if certain additional criteria are met.
As a precaution, since some activities are prohibited and some allowed subject to meeting additional criteria, affected organizations may want to consider seeking legal advice, based on their particular operating environment and needs, regarding whether their current processes comply.
See the related article: Commerce Department Extends Waiver to U.S. Companies for Limited Business with Huawei.