FedEx sues US government after Huawei errors

FedEx is suing the US government over Huawei restrictions, after another error landed the company in hot water with Chinese authorities.

FedEx argues it should not be liable for products shipped inadvertently in violation of the Trump administration’s ban on exports to Huawei-associated Chinese companies.

In court filings, FedEx complained that export rules “essentially deputize FedEx to police the contents of the millions of packages it ships daily even though doing so is a virtually impossible task, logistically, economically, and in many cases, legally.”

Last week FedEx returned a Huawei phone sent from the UK to the United States due to an “operational error”. This followed diversions of Huawei packages to the US which were not being sent to or from the country, which FedEx said were also errors due to changes in internal protocol as a result of the ban.

Huawei has been added to a trade blacklist by the US government following security concerns relating to the government of China. The two countries have been engaged in an escalating trade war.

After Huawei referred FedEx to China’s postal regulator over the incidents, FedEx now faces being added to China’s own upcoming “Unreliable Entities List”.

A US Commerce Department spokesperson said of FedEx’s filing: “We have not yet reviewed the complaint, but nevertheless look forward to defending Commerce’s role in protecting U.S. national security.”

Source: Reuters

Header image: Sawyer Sutton