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28/05/2019

Business Ties With FedEx Being Reviewed By Huawei After Package ‘Diversion’




Business Ties With FedEx Being Reviewed By Huawei After Package ‘Diversion’
Following the diversion of two parcels destined for the Asian address of the Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei to the United States and the attempted rerouting of two other parcels by FedEx Corp, the business relationship with the US based courier company was being reviewed by the Chinese firm, claimed a report published by Reuters.
 
Two packages that were addressed to the Huawei in China from Japan were diverted to the United States by FedEx while the company also tried to change the destination of two more packages that were sent from Vietnam and were destined for the Huawei offices in some other places in Asia. All of these were done without any consent from the Chinese firm. The report claimed that the source with the information also showed tracking record images of FedEx to highlight the point.
 
The report claimed that no comments were made on the issue by FedEx after Reuters showed its representative the images of the tracking records.
 
According to the report, Huawei said that the four packages contained only documents and “no technology”. That statement however could not be verified by Reuters.
 
The possible reasons for the diversion of the packages were not elaborated upon by Huawei and the report also did not carry any evidence that the incident was influenced by the decision of the U.S. government to put Huawei and 70 of its affiliate companies in other countries on a trade blacklist ion the earlier this month which effectively prevented the Chinese company from doing any business sin the US and conducting any business with any American company in terms of goods or technology.
 
“The recent experiences where important commercial documents sent via FedEx were not delivered to their destination, and instead were either diverted to, or were requested to be diverted to, FedEx in the United States, undermines our confidence,” Joe Kelly, a spokesman for Huawei, reportedly told Reuters. “We will now have to review our logistics and document delivery support requirements as a direct result of these incidents,” the spokesman said.
 
According to FedEx tracking records provided by Huawei, one package originating in Vietnam was received by Friday, and the other was on its way, the Chinese company acknowledged to Reuters.
 
The packages were “misrouted in error” and that no third party had requested FedEx to divert the packages, FedEx spokeswoman Maury Donahue told Reuters. “This is an isolated issue limited to a very small number of packages,” said FedEx, referring to the four parcels affected. “We are aware of all shipments at issue and are working directly with our customers to return the packages to their possession.”
 
There is a fear in the US administration that the telecom equipment that is manufactured by Huawei – the largest such telecom equipment manufacturer in the world and also a leading player  in the next generation 5G mobile connectivity technology, could be used by Chinese authorities to for spying on western countries. This is the reason that the company – along with its domestic rival ZTE, have been place din the soc called ‘entity list’ by the US  Commerce Department. 
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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