diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/ucnv.c b/icu4c/source/common/ucnv.c
index 98e507c748..b652f6c16c 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/ucnv.c
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/ucnv.c
@@ -745,7 +745,7 @@ int32_t   ucnv_fromUChars (const UConverter * converter,
   myTarget_limit = target + targetSize;
 
   if(myTarget_limit < target)       /*if targetsize is such that the limit*/
-    myTarget_limit = U_MAX_PTR;     /* would wrap around, truncate it.    */
+    myTarget_limit = (char *)U_MAX_PTR;     /* would wrap around, truncate it.    */
 
   if (targetSize > 0)
     {
@@ -853,7 +853,7 @@ int32_t ucnv_toUChars (const UConverter * converter,
   myTarget_limit = target + targetSize - 1;
 
   if(myTarget_limit < target)       /*if targetsize is such that the limit*/
-    myTarget_limit = U_MAX_PTR - 1; /* would wrap around, truncate it.    */
+    myTarget_limit = ((UChar*)U_MAX_PTR) - 1; /* would wrap around, truncate it.    */
 
 
   /*Not in pure pre-flight mode */
diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp b/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp
index b77cd7daac..8a4925d9a4 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp
@@ -785,7 +785,7 @@ UnicodeString::extract(UTextOffset start,
   myTargetLimit = myTarget + arraySize;
 
   if(myTargetLimit < myTarget)  /* ptr wrapped around: pin to U_MAX_PTR */
-    myTargetLimit = U_MAX_PTR; 
+    myTargetLimit = (char*)U_MAX_PTR; 
 
   // perform the conversion
   // there is no loop here since we assume the buffer is large enough