Congressman Seeks GAO Study of Effects of Trade War on 5G
A Florida congressman is asking the Government Accountability Office to study whether tariffs on electronic components, routers and telecom network equipment will make creating a 5G network more costly. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., is asking colleagues to join him in requesting a GAO report. He said he'd like GAO analysts to answer these questions about the additional costs to the U.S. when deploying 5G infrastructure and how the tariffs affect the competition among 5G hardware manufacturers. Hastings would also like to know more about the "national security implications of our entire supply chain of 5G infrastructure being dependent on foreign hardware manufacturers" and the "possible conflicts of interest between [Huawei] and the Trump Administration."
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Hastings wrote, "President Trump’s trade policies with China threaten to eliminate whatever advantage we have in the race to deploy 5G technology nationwide. His tariffs are raising the cost of the microelectronics that are crucial in the fabrication of 5G infrastructure, raising the costs to consumers as carriers begin to roll out this technology."
At the same time, Hastings said no Huawei or ZTE equipment should be dictating 5G infrastructure. "The United States no longer manufacturers any of the core telecommunications network equipment related to 5G," he wrote. "Only four companies produce 5G hardware in any meaningful capacity and none are United States-based: Ericsson and Nokia from Sweden and Finland respectively, and two China-based hardware
manufacturers, Huawei and ZTE."