Huawei CFO extradition order was an independent act by the DOJ: Peter Navarro
A top Huawei telecoms executive was arrested in Canada on Saturday at the request of the U.S., clouding a trade deal with China and forcing the stock market to claw back from its deep losses on Thursday.
Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1 and faces extradition to the U.S.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told FOX Business the White House had no prior knowledge of the Huawei executive’s detainment, or of the Justice Department’s actions prior to President Trump’s dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Argentina.
“The Justice Department acts independently when it prosecutes felonies, and that’s the case that we have with this particular case,” he said during an interview on “Trish Regan Primetime” on Thursday.
Wanzhou, 46, was arrested by Canadian authorities as part of an U.S. investigation into an alleged scheme by Huawei to use a global banking institution to make illegal transactions involving Iran, Reuters reported. An overseer at HSBC Holdings flagged the suspicious transactions by the world’s largest telecom company.
The arrest of the Huawei CFO fueled trade concerns with a Chinese state-run newspaper claiming its “declaration of war.”
Navarro said the 90-day tariff truce between the world's two largest economies remains strong.
“Is China going to follow through on all the structural changes it needs to make in order for them to be a good member of the international trading society? It remains to be seen,” he said.