Commerce secretary says: China’s ZTE will pay $1 billion penalty to lift ban

The Trump administration has agreed to relax its punishment of Chinese telecom company ZTE, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday.

The deal, announced by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, will mean the end of a ban on ZTE buying American parts, provided the state-controlled company sticks to the terms.

ZTE will pay a $1 billion fine and fund a new in-house compliance team staffed by U.S. experts.

“We are literally embedding a compliance department of our choosing into the company to monitor it going forward. They will pay for those people, but the people will report to the new chairman,” Ross said. “This is a pretty strict settlement. The strictest and largest settlement fine that has ever been brought by the Commerce Department against any violator of export controls.”