In June, the U.S. Commerce Department announced changes to restrictions imposed last year on Chinese telecom giant Huawei to ensure that American companies and organizations are not left out of international standards development activities for 5G and other technical challenges.
Had the U.S. not reversed its isolationist course, Americans would have been hamstrung internationally at a time when U.S. leadership is critically needed. But it begs the question: Why did the administration implement restrictions in the first place?
A little over a year ago, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Business (BIS) hastily added Huawei to the Entities List, which restricted American companies from doing business with Huawei. This created another problem: It compelled American engineers to disengage from international standards development activities for fear of running afoul of the BIS restrictions. In their absence, Huawei and non-U.S. companies, not subject to the same limits, filled the influence vacuum.
The BIS decision only exacerbated an atrophying of U.S. leadership in standards activity. A 2018 report prepared for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on the internet of things noted that, in the global standards race, U.S. interests are missing or under-represented in key international standardization organizations. At the International Standardization Organization, the U.S. ranks 16th in technical committee participation, while China ranks 4th. These examples are more the norm than the exception in international standards bodies.
Historically, the U.S. government has never been the most committed to international standards development. U.S. companies have often led to ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
