US removes China’s ZTE from blacklist after paying fine and guilty plea in violating sanctions

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Reuters

Published: 6:38am, 29 Mar 2017

The US Department of Commerce will remove Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp from a trade blacklist on Wednesday after the company pleaded guilty to violating sanctions on Iran and agreed to pay nearly US$900 million, the agency said in a notice.

Removal from the list marks the end of a tense period for ZTE, which faced trade restrictions that could have severed its ties to critical US suppliers.

“By acknowledging the mistakes we made, taking responsibility for them ... we are committed to a ZTE that is fully compliant, healthy and trustworthy,” ZTE Chief Executive Zhao Xianming said in an emailed statement.

Last year, the US Commerce Department placed export restrictions on ZTE as punishment for violating US sanctions against Iran. The restrictions would have prevented restricted suppliers from providing ZTE any US-made equipment, potentially freezing the Chinese handset maker’s supply chain.

A visitor testing ZTE Blade v8 phone on the first day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The US government has slapped US$1.2 billion in fines on Chinese telecom giant ZTE for violations of US export controls for selling goods to Iran and North Korea. Photo: AFP

Over the past 12 months, as ZTE cooperated with US authorities, the Commerce Department temporarily suspended the trade restrictions with a series of three-month reprieves, allowing the company to maintain ties to US suppliers.

Earlier this month, ZTE agreed to pay a total of US$892.4 million and pleaded guilty to violating US sanctions by sending American-made technology to Iran and lying to investigators.