U.S. senate back pedals on ZTE sanctions

The U.S Senate back in June passed a new National Defense Authorization Act that reinstated sanctions against ZTE. The move was in a bid to set aside President Trump's deal with ZTE that allows the Chinese firm evade the sanction placed on it by the commerce department.

Senate's efforts were, however, jeopardized when the lower legislative chamber passed a similar bill, with no reference to the senate's clause that seeks to reinstate the ban on the Chinese firm. so both chambers were largely expected to harmonize the bills before sending it for the president assent.

The commerce department already lifted the trade ban on ZTE after meeting all terms and conditions, including a $400million Escrow deposit, however, the company was still in limbo as the Senate was expected to deliberate further on the defense clause. The company can now have a sigh of relief as the U.S. senators have reportedly dropped the clause from a defense bill that would have reinstated sanctions on China’s ZTE Corp.

An amendment backed by two Republicans and two Democrats would have reinstated the sanctions but was stripped out of the must-pass defense policy bill, lawmakers said on Friday.