Senate votes to scuttle ZTE deal

The White House is expected to work to prevent the provision from carrying over into any final bill.    The Senate on Monday voted to prevent the Trump administration from lifting an export denial order against Chinese telecom company ZTE.
   The measure passed as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was approved by a vote of 85-10.
   The House version of the legislation doesn’t contain the ZTE language included in the Senate bill.
   Both pieces of legislation now move to the conference process wherein the House and Senate will work to hash out differences between the bills and develop one final version of the NDAA to be subject to a vote in both chambers.
   The White House has indicated it will work with Congress during the process to ensure the final bill doesn’t include the ZTE language.
   Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced earlier this month that the United States and China agreed on a settlement to lift an order imposed in April banning U.S. entities from exporting to ZTE in exchange for the company paying a $1.4 billion penalty as well as installing a new board of directors and a team of coordinators handpicked by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to monitor its compliance with U.S. export control laws.
   The Senate NDAA would generally prohibit, for a period of one year, federal officials from modifying penalties, including those imposed pursuant to denial orders, with respect to Chinese telecommunications companies determined to have violated an export control or sanctions law of the United States.
   To modify any such penalty, the president would have to certify to appropriate congressional committees that the company hasn’t violated U.S. laws for one year and that the company is fully cooperating with U.S. government investigations, if any.