ZTE Corp. is close to clearing the final hurdle needed for the Trump administration to lift sanctions that prevented the Chinese telecommunications giant from buying American equipment, a U.S. Commerce Department official said.
The Shenzhen-based company has paid a $1 billion fine and another $400 million in escrow will be completed in a couple of days, the official said.
In May, Trump said on Twitter that he planned to walk back those penalties, and the administration later announced the new deal with ZTE. A bipartisan group of lawmakers remains concerned about ZTE’s threat to U.S. national security and want legislation aimed at stronger penalties.