FedEx has filed a lawsuit against the US government over the growing Huawei debacle. Amid recent shipment returns and issues, the company states it cannot reliably screen every package for illegal technology.
FedEx states in its lawsuit that the Huawei ban is forcing them to “police the contents of millions of packages it ships daily even though doing so is a virtually impossible task, logistically, economically, and in many cases, “legally”.
Recently, a FedEx shipment of a Huawei phone from the UK to the US sent by tech news outlet PCMag was blocked, and the device was sent back to London. Another package Huawei sent from Japan bound for Chinese offices was routed through the United States by FedEx.
In response, FedEx has claimed that both incidents were operational errors and that the company could handle Huawei shipments to addresses other than those on the US security blacklist.
There is a rumour that China could potentially place FedEx on their own Unreliable Entities List, which would prevent them from operating in China; an ironic mirror of the current situation with Huawei.
FedEx would lose a significant chunk of business if banned from China, but also faces significant pressure from home to comply with the trade embargo. Rock, meet hard place.
