American multinational courier delivery services company, FedEx on Monday filed a lawsuit against the U.S government over Huawei. The lawsuit is in a bid to stop the U.S. government from requiring the package giant to enforce a crackdown on the Chinese telecommunications-gear maker. It seeks prayers of the court to block the Department of Commerce from enforcing regulations in the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) against FedEx. The EAR places a burden on FedEx to know the content and makeup of its shipment to ascertain if they comply with regulations.
In the suit, the US courier company claims the latest trade blacklist from the commerce department essentially compels it to police millions of packages that come in and out of its network daily to ensure prohibited items aren’t being exported to Huawei and others on the blacklist. It is a task, FedEx claims, that is legally and logistically impossible.
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“It’s impossible, even with the fantastic computer systems and compliance investments we made. We simply can’t be the policeman for the U.S. Department of Commerce,” FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith told Fox News in a chat earlier on Monday.
The latest moves became necessary after FedEx botched several deliveries for Huawei Technologies Co – the latest of which it attributed to an operational error. The Chinese government has since demanded an explanation from the courier company after it failed to deliver a US bond Huawei P30 shipped from the UK.
