The United States government plans to temporarily lift export restrictions on Chinese telecom company ZTE Corporation, a senior Commerce Department official said.

Last month, US Commerce Department had leveled tough trade sanctions on ZTE Corp., citing the company had compromised on national security by violating restrictions on exporting American technological products to Iran.  

Like Us on Facebook

"As part of the effort to resolve the matter, and based upon binding commitments that ZTE has made to the US government, Commerce expects this week to be able to provide temporary relief from some licensing requirements," the senior Commerce official said.

But the official also added that the respite "would be temporary in nature and would be maintained only if ZTE is abiding by its commitments to the U.S. government."

All the specific details of the agreement will become public after it is published on Federal Register this week.

The agreement is seen as a result of ZTE's week long negotiation with US Commerce Department. The senior officials from US Commerce Department informed that discussion with ZTE was constructive and result oriented. 

Experts claimed that the tough nature of sanctions, which were likely to threaten ZTE's global supply chain, prompted ZTE officials to quickly negotiate with U.S. Commerce Department. 

Chinese government also criticized the sanctions. China's Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said that China hopes ZTE will be removed from black list "in order to avoid harming the stable, healthy development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations."

The trade sanctions imposed on ZTE on the first week of March was fallout of 2012 investigation by U.S. Commerce Department. The investigation was in response to Reuters report alleging that ZTE had exported software products of top US companies to Iran. The report claimed that exported goods amounted to worth millions of dollars.

Iran's controversial nuclear program has been a major bone of contention between Iran and America for almost one decade. US claims that Iran's nuclear program is threat to global peace. U.S government imposed many trade restrictions on US tech companies on trading with Iran, citing that Iran may use the technology to bolster its nuclear technology.

Although US and Iran reached a deal on nuclear issues in 2015, trade restrictions on US tech companies are still very much in place.         

TagsZTE Corp, ZTE China, ZTE Export Curb, ZTE Trade Sanctions