Reuters reported on Wednesday (Nov. 4) that the Trump administration is suspending the inclusion of Ant Group on its list of export control entities. Prior to that, Ant Group was reportedly in communication with the U.S. government.
Reuters, citing four anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, said that a head of Ant Group had a phone call with a senior U.S. government official.
The report said the U.S. State Department recommended last month that Ant Group be added to the list of export-controlled entities so that U.S. investors could not participate in Ant Group’s initial public offering. But the Commerce Department shelved its recommendation to include Ant Group on the list of entities after a phone call between Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group Holding, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Three people with knowledge of the matter said that fears of angering Wall Street before the election and the idea of a potential lawsuit helped persuade Ross to drop the proposal, Reuters said. But, a fourth person said, Ross considered the fact that Alibaba’s Taobao platform was already under the scrutiny of the U.S. government because it was on the U.S. Trade Representative’s Market Control List for selling certain counterfeit goods. So the decision had nothing to do with the phone call, the election, the market or fears of legal trouble, the person said.
Reuters says that while Ant Group’s Alipay app is not currently available to U.S. users, China hawks in the Trump administration remain concerned that Alipay could have access to sensitive banking data of future U.S. users.
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