Rubio calls for legislation to keep Huawei restrictions in place

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) vowed legislative action on Saturday after President Trump said that he would lift a ban on U.S. companies doing business with Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Rubio predicted in a tweet that a veto-proof majority in the Senate would act to reinstate the ban and other restrictions on Huawei if Trump was serious about lifting them.

“If President Trump has in fact bargained away the recent restrictions on #Huawei, then we will have to get those restrictions put back in place through legislation,” Rubio tweeted, adding: “And it will pass with a large veto proof majority.”

If President Trump has in fact bargained away the recent restrictions on #Huawei, then we will have to get those restrictions put back in place through legislation.

And it will pass with a large veto proof majority.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 29, 2019

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) on Saturday also pushed back on Trump’s reported move, which the president announced while attending the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Japan.{mosads}

“Huawei is one of few potent levers we have to make China play fair on trade. If President @realDonaldTrump backs off, as it appears he is doing, it will dramatically undercut our ability to change China’s unfair trades practices,” Schumer tweeted.

The U.S. government has designated Huawei as a national security threat due to concerns over Huawei’s proximity to Chinese intelligence services and the People’s Liberation Army.

Trump announced during a news conference at the G-20 summit in Osaka on Saturday that he would allow U.S. companies to sell products to Huawei after speaking with China’s President Xi Jinping.

“U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei,” Trump said. “We’re talking about equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it.”

The Trump administration and China have battled over trade policy for months, with Huawei front and center in the negotiations.

The company’s CFO Meng Wanzhou is currently battling extradition to the U.S. on charges of bank and wire fraud.