Pentagon Moves To Finally Cut Off Sales Of American Chips To Huawei The Pentagon has followed through with threats to drop its opposition to tighter sales restrictions involving American-made components, the WSJ reports, signaling that the Trump Administration is adopting a policy of no mercy as Germany's legislature prepares to make an important decision that will govern Huawei's access to the German market. Here's a brief summary in case you haven't been following the simmering beef between Washington and Huawei, which has played out over the past 18 months in a bevy of attacks on the US side. Though the signing of the 'Phase 1' trade deal temporarily eased tensions (as Washington quietly exempted Huawei from a blacklist to which it was added last year), now that the trade deal has essentially collapsed thanks to China's economic woes, and Boris Johnson has defied Washington and allowed Huawei to work on ''con-core" components of Britain's 5G network, Washington is sending a clear message: It's done playing games. Earlier in the week, Pentagon officials issued a trial balloon: A leaked report in the WSJ claiming they had discussed reinstating Commerce Department restrictions that would essentially ban Huawei from buying American-made products. telecoms giant as several of America's most important European allies weigh whether they'll allow Huawei components to be used in building domestic 5G networks. As part of the continued effort against Huawei, the DoJ added a "Racketeering" charge in its case against the company, which is playing out between prosecutors in at least two federal districts. One of the reasons Washington initially hesitated to move ahead with a complete ban was the American semi-conductor industry, which would have been badly hurt by the measure (Huawei being a major customer of American chips). Apparently, that's no longer as big of a consideration for the Pentagon. Which means it's only a matter of time before American semi-conductor stocks start really feeling the pain. And American investors are going to need to figure out what this 'kicking the Chinese economy while it's down' is going to mean for future trade negotiations. Tyler Durden Fri, 02/14/2020 - 13:20