MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

With Trump leaving, Brazil backtracks in its opposition to Huawei's 5G bid

Financial costs and exit of US president Trump are forcing president Bolsonaro, who had opposed Huawei to backtrack on his opposition to Huawei's bid

China's telecommunications sector is celebrating that the Brazilian government became the first in the world to backtrack on its opposition to Huawei's 5G bid. Brazil will not seek to bar the Chinese telecommunication giant from its 2021 5G network auctions in June, according to reports published in the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo.

Financial costs potentially worth billions of dollars and the exit of US President Donald Trump are forcing President Jair Bolsonaro, who had opposed Huawei on unproven grounds, to backtrack on his opposition to Huawei's bid, the paper said.

Chinese analysts said the reported move is significant as it makes Brazil the first country to change its stance on Huawei after Trump's election loss.

Fu Liang, a Beijing-based telecom industry expert said on Sunday that as Trump leaves the White House and the US failed in its promise to provide badly needed vaccines to Brazil, which has been hit hard by the virus, Brazil's committed pro-US stance naturally did not materialize.

Brazil's reported move to allow Huawei to bid is a setback for the Trump administration's so-called “Clean Network” scheme, for which it painstakingly lobbied around the world, coercing and luring countries to shun Chinese high-tech companies. The Brazilian development indicates the Trump administration's campaign to exclude Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is likely to fail globally, Beijing analysts said.

“Without the stick-and-carrot approach of the Trump administration, more countries will fall back to a neutral stance after they ventured to move against Huawei,” Fu said.

Fu predicted that more countries, including the UK and Canada, will take a similar approach as Brazil. As for the so-called “Clean Network” scheme, it will likely be changed under Joe Biden, according to Fu.

Under pressure from the US, countries including the UK moved to ban Huawei. But their plans left room for a future change.

“Brazil's reported move complies with business logic. Will that backtrack score a win for the country's consumers and cause more countries to follow suit? That depends on Huawei's service,” the Global Times reported.