Here’s how American chip makers pressed Trump’s administration to ease US export controls for Huawei Technologies

President Donald Trump’s decision to allow US companies to continue selling to Huawei followed an extensive lobbying campaign by the US semiconductor industry that argued the ban could hurt America’s economic and national security.

In multiple high-level meetings and a letter to the Commerce Department, the companies argued for targeted action against Huawei Technologies instead of the blanket ban the Trump administration imposed in May. That includes identifying specific technologies that the Chinese company shouldn’t be given access to, while allowing US firms to supply the rest.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), a trade group that represents companies like Intel, Broadcom and Qualcomm, told the Trump administration that its sanctions against the Chinese company will make them appear to be undependable partners, which will put them at a severe disadvantage globally.

Representatives of chip makers last month met with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to argue that the decision to place the company on a so-called entity list could hurt the country, people familiar with the meeting said.

In the letter seen by Bloomberg News, SIA said that the action risked cutting off its members from their largest market and hurting their ability to invest. At the same time, Huawei would in many cases be able to get components elsewhere, they argued.