Washington, : US President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order declaring a national emergency over telecommunications technology and services linked to foreign adversaries, prohibiting US companies from engaging in transactions with companies from adversary countries.
“I, Donald J Trump… find that foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services, which store and communicate vast amounts of sensitive information, facilitate the digital economy, and support critical infrastructure and vital emergency services, in order to commit malicious cyber-enabled actions, including economic and industrial espionage against the United States and its people,” the president said in its order.
Mr Trump found that the unrestricted acquisition or use in the United States of information and communications technology to the jurisdiction or direction of foreign adversaries augments the ability of foreign adversaries to create and exploit vulnerabilities in information and communications technology or services, with potentially catastrophic effects, and thereby constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.
He noted that threat exists both in the case of individual acquisitions or uses of such technology or services, and when acquisitions or uses of such technologies are considered as a class.
“In light of these findings, I hereby declare a national emergency with respect to this threat.” Mr Trump said in a statement.
Trump’s order comes less than a week after the latest round of trade talks between the United States and China broke down. Both sides have tried to overcome disagreements that emerged in the wake of Trump’s decision last June to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since, the two countries exchanged several rounds of tariffs, Sputnik said in a report.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US Trade Representative’s Office issued a list of more than $300 billion worth of Chinese goods that the United States could soon impose tariffs on in the escalating trade fight.
Media reports also suggest that the declaration of national emergency allows the Trump administration to ban US companies from doing business with Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei.
Huawei has recently faced global scrutiny, with a number of states alleging the company is linked to the Chinese government and has spied on its behalf.
Although both Huawei and the Chinese government have firmly refuted these claims, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States banned in 2018 Huawei from participating in government contracts.
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