The Bureau of Industry and Security today announced that it was extending the Temporary General License which permitted exports to ZTE from June 30 all the way to August 30. ZTE, as this blog reported here, was placed on the Entity List because of elaborate shenanigans by the company by which it bought U.S. goods and resold them to Iran.

Two weeks after bringing the ban hammer down on ZTE, BIS issued a temporary general license which covered March 24 to June 30, more than three months. The new temporary license expires on August 30, one day short of two months from June 30. Why this temporary license is shorter than the previous one was not disclosed but one can only suspect that ZTE may not be minding its manners in the way that BIS would like to see.

The problem for U.S. exporters is that such a short license, with the real possibility, given its shortened length, that it may not be renewed beyond August 30, opens up the possibility that the exporter will sell items to ZTE that it may not later be able to service even though the warranty on those items is still in force. If the temporary general license is not renewed and ZTE stays on the list, the ability of the U.S. exporter to send replacement parts to ZTE or, alternatively, to repair the item in the United States and return it to ZTE will be in question. It would not surprise me if the temporary general license does not get much use.

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