President Donald Trump downplayed the possibility of further restricting exports of U.S. goods and technology to China, going as far as calling some of the proposals being circulated "ridiculous."
"I have seen some of the regulations being circulated, including those being contemplated by Congress, and they are ridiculous," Trump wrote Tuesday in a string of tweets. "I want to make it EASY to do business with the United States, not difficult. Everyone in my Administration is being so instructed, with no excuses..."
Administration officials are weighing a number of rules that would further restrict the ability of U.S. companies to do business with blacklisted company Huawei and potentially other Chinese enterprises.
"We don’t want to make it impossible to do business with us," Trump tweeted. "That will only mean that orders will go to someplace else. As an example, I want China to buy our jet engines, the best in the World...."
The proposals have fueled concerns that U.S. companies could lose market share to foreign competitors and deprive firms of an important source of revenue to fund research and development. Opponents of the proposals argue that further restricting exports of non-sensitive technology products will negatively impact the ability of U.S. tech firms to remain dominant in semiconductors and other industries.
"We applaud President Trump's tweets supporting U.S. companies being able to sell products to China and opposing proposed regulations that would unduly curtail that ability," said Semiconductor Industry Association president and CEO John Neuffer. "As we have discussed with the administration, sales of non-sensitive, commercial products to China drive semiconductor research and innovation, which is critical to America's economic strength and national security."
The Commerce Department is considering denying permission for General Electric to export aircraft engines to China for the country's first commercial airliner, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
POLITICO reported last week that the Pentagon was considering reversing its opposition to a rule that will make it even harder to do business with Huawei. The Chinese telecommunications firm was blacklisted by the Commerce department last year but U.S. firms have found ways to maintain business with the company by shipping products to be further assembled in other countries.
"The United States cannot, & will not, become such a difficult place to deal with in terms of foreign countries buying our product, including for the always used National Security excuse, that our companies will be forced to leave in order to remain competitive," Trump tweeted.
