Argentina's New Telecom Supply-Chain Rules Require a U.S. Industry Certification for State Purchases, Effectively Shutting Out Huawei, ZTE and Other Chinese Firms
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina's National Cybersecurity Center (CNC) published Disposition 7/2026 in the Official Gazette on November 6, setting supply-chain security requirements for equipment destined for critical national telecommunications infrastructure. National agencies, state companies and state-owned firms buying, installing or operating such equipment must require suppliers to show that the manufacturer holds SCS 9001 supply-chain security certification from the U.S.-based Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). The disposition was signed by the center's executive director, Walter Fabián Agüero.
The document names no company, but TIA certification is unavailable to firms on U.S. restriction lists, so Chinese companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Dahua, Hytera and DJI cannot obtain it. In practice, they will be shut out of Argentine state telecom purchases. The state telecom company Arsat is among the first affected.
The requirements are mandatory for the national public sector and apply to purchases initiated within 90 days. The CNC has 90 days to define which networks are critical and to classify equipment into four levels, with certification required for the top two. The disposition also asks the communications regulator Enacom to evaluate adding the requirement to equipment homologation, ahead of a new equipment registry regulation due to take effect on December 1.
Argentine officials told the broadcaster TN that the change responds to an express White House request to limit Chinese companies' access to an area Washington considers sensitive. U.S. Ambassador Peter Lamelas welcomed the decision in a post on X. A U.S. State Department report to Congress had noted that the same standard, applied in Paraguay's 2025 5G tender, in practice prevented Chinese firms from competing, and Costa Rica had also adopted it. Industry estimates put Chinese equipment at about 40% of Argentina's telecom networks.
(Source: National Cybersecurity Center, Argentina)
Source: National Cybersecurity Center, Argentina
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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