FedEx sues U.S. government over ‘impossible’ task of policing exports to China – Reuters
What happened: The American courier services company FedEx is suing the US Department of Commerce, claiming that it shouldn’t be held liable over unintentionally delivering Huawei parcels that violate the US ban. FedEx claimed in a court filing in the District of Columbia that the task of monitoring millions of packages is “a virtually impossible task, logistically, economically, and in many cases, legally,” and that the government has essentially “deputized” them to police parcels.
Why it’s important: FedEx has been caught between a rock and a hard place since several Chinese firms have been included in the US entity list, which prohibits American companies from doing business with them. In May, Huawei said two of its packages containing documents were misdirected, and that it will review its ties with FedEx. Yesterday, PCMag reported that FedEx refused to deliver a Huawei P30 smartphone mailed from one of its writers in the UK to one in the US. FedEx said that it was due to an “operational error.” The delivery company said that it will not deliver any Huawei-made products mailed to Huawei addresses, or others which are on the entity list.