EU spares Huawei, Chinese suppliers from blanket 5G ban, defying Trump

The European Union stopped short of an outright ban on Huawei Technologies and other Chinese 5G suppliers, seeking to navigate a path between warnings from US President Donald Trump and provoking Beijing.

In a set of commonly agreed guidelines on how to mitigate risks stemming from the roll-out of next generation telecoms networks, the EU said companies based in non-democratic countries could be excluded from the procurement of certain core components, following assessments by security agencies.

But despite intense US lobbying, the so-called toolbox of measures released Wednesday does not recommend a pre-emptive blanket ban of Chinese equipment, a decision that follows the UK on Tuesday allowing Huawei components into noncore networks. EU member states have until April 30 to implement the mitigating measures included in the toolbox.

“We know that the decisions the EU and its Member States will take on these matters will have an impact in the way we relate with our partners,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president in charge of digital affairs, said at a press conference. “What we are defining today is a European approach to 5G security.”

The EU’s position reflects a balancing act between concerns about the risk of Chinese espionage and the bloc’s reluctance to pick a fight with its second-biggest trading partner, which over the past decade has been expanding its presence in the continent with large-scale investment projects. The fudge is an effort to navigate Beijing’s warnings of repercussions if companies like Huawei were banned, and US threats of sanctions, such as cuts in intelligence sharing, if Chinese equipment is used.