US Tells UK It Still Has ‘Significant Concerns’ Over Huawei

The United States continues to maintain pressure on British officials, ahead of the UK final decision on whether to allow Huawei to supply equipment for 5G networks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to decide by the end of this month whether to allow Hauwei equipment to be used.

But US officials are maintaining the pressure on the UK, stating that Washington still had significant concerns about the Chinese networking giant.

US warning

The US pressure comes as the UK exits the European Union at the end of the month, and wants to sign a trade deal with America to boot. The two allies also disagree on the issue of digital tax, with the Prime Minister in favour on it.

Indeed, the disagreements spilled out into the open at Davos, where US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he would be meeting with British finance minister on Saturday to discuss Huawei.

Let me just say again, it’s a complicated issue,” Mnuchin was quoted as saying by Reuters. “We’ve made very clear that it relates to all of the critical areas that we have significant concerns. But again, there’s ongoing discussion on these issues.

Huawei

Trade deal

All of this comes as the UK is looking to reach a trade deal with the US, despite the fact that the UK still intends to impose a digital service tax on the revenue of companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon.

Business minister Andrea Leadsom was quoted by Reuters as saying on Thursday that Britain will soon decide what role Huawei will have, but there are only a limited number of alternative providers.

Well there are other providers but they are limited, ideally there would be more providers of infrastructure similar to the work that Huawei does but the UK is looking very carefully at this issue and we will be making a final decision soon,” Leadsom told Sky.

It is an ongoing process and there are all sorts of factors to take into consideration, as you say, like the availability of other providers, like the work that Huawei has already done in the United Kingdom, so these discussions are ongoing,” she said.

I share the concerns of many citizens about protecting our national security interest,” Leadsom said.

Do you know all about security? Try our quiz!

Tom Jowitt

Tom Jowitt is a leading British tech freelancer and long standing contributor to Silicon UK. He is also a bit of a Lord of the Rings nut...

Recent Posts

NASA Shows Photos Of Crashed ispace Lander

NASA spacecraft has provided images of the crash site of the privately funded ispace Mission…

2 hours ago

DeepSeek Aided Chinese Military, US Official Alleges

Senior US official alleges Chinese AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations

3 hours ago

Mike Lynch’s Bayesian Superyacht Lifted From Ocean Floor

Investigation into death of British tech entrepreneur Dr Mike Lynch and others to continue, after…

4 hours ago

Tesla Launches Robotaxi Service In Austin

After years of hype, Tesla quietly launches its robotaxi service in Austin, but should Waymo,…

6 hours ago

Norway Plans Temporary Ban On New Crypto Mining Data Centres

Norway reportedly seeks to impose temporary ban on new data centres mining crypto, to conserve…

3 days ago

BBC Warns Perplexity Of Legal Action Over Content Use

British broadcaster BBC alleges US-based Perplexity is reproducing BBC content “verbatim” without its permission

3 days ago