Huawei ban will devastate company: Cypress Semiconductors founder
Cypress Semiconductors founder and former CEO T.J. Rodgers told FOX Business he believes the U.S. blacklist of Huawei products will devastate the company.
"You got one of the most technically competent companies in the world, Huawei, building one of the most complex electronic machines that has ever been built by man, and we just yanked the critical components out of that machine," he said during an interview on “Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast” Thursday.
Rodgers went on to say the blacklist is a "very dire threat" to Huawei, and it will have a negative impact on U.S. semiconductor companies.
“Stopping trade is bad for both sides, but the American companies will lose a large customer. China will lose the ability to make 5G routers, so it's asymmetrical but we are on the favored side of that debate."
U.S. lawmakers Wednesday worked on providing about $700 million in grants to help American telecom companies with the cost of removing Huawei equipment from their networks. The move will block the use of equipment or services from Huawei and Chinese telecoms firm ZTE in next-generation 5G networks.
Rodgers said the U.S. appeared to show signs of softening its stance on the negotiated China trade deal forcing President Trump to go “all in” on the Huawei restrictions.
"It worked before in the case of ZTE. He backed down, and I am sure he backed down in return for concessions. So, to me, the card that they are going to play back that matters more to us than anything else is they (China) own rare earth. These elements are used in a lot of high-tech stuff, and the Chinese mine and refine and control 90% of that market," he said.
When asked for his thoughts on the overall trade tensions with China, Rodgers said, he is hopeful the U.S. will come to a trade agreement with China that will benefit the world's two largest economies.
“China's economy has taken a bigger hit than the United States has, it's always been asymmetric, Rodgers added. “They export more than we do and therefore, putting tariffs on hurts them worse than us. So I hope we put these egos aside and get back to normal trade and prosperity for both sides.”
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Additional trade talks between the U.S. and China have yet to be scheduled since the last round ended earlier this month when Trump increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday said he is hopeful the two sides could resume negotiations.