UPDATE 6/24: We've received additional responses and statements from FedEx, Huawei, and the UK Royal Mail's Parcelforce unit, and will provide further updates in our follow-up article as this story continues to develop.

UPDATE 6/22: FedEx sent us the following statement this morning:

"The package in question was mistakenly returned to the shipper, and we apologize for this operational error. As a global company that moves 15 million shipments each day, we are committed to compliance with all rules and regulations and minimizing impact to our customers as we adjust our operations to comply with a dynamic US regulatory environment."

Original Story:

The trade war between the US and China took a weird twist this morning, when PCMag's UK writer was told he couldn't send a Huawei P30 phone to our New York office because of a "US government issue" with Huawei and the Chinese government.

We're trying to refresh our review of Huawei's flagship P30 Pro, a spectacular camera phone currently on sale through Amazon in the US for $908.88. As we had one at our office in London, our UK reporter, Adam Smith, popped it in a Parcelforce bag to sail over the seas to New York.

This is totally ridiculous. Our UK writer tried to send us his @HuaweiMobile P30 unit so I could check something - not a new phone, our existing phone, already held by our company, just being sent between offices - and THIS happened @FedEx pic.twitter.com/sOaebiqfN6 — Sascha Segan (@saschasegan) June 21, 2019

Smith had to fill out a form listing the model number of the phone, which he did honestly.

According to tracking information provided by Parcelforce and FedEx, the phone left London, flew to Indianapolis, spent about five hours in Indianapolis and was promptly returned to London the same day. Smith now has the phone in his hand in London.

When Is a Ban Not a Ban?

"As advised on the information provided, due to the issues the USA government is having with Huawei they don't accept any items with this brand," a Parcelforce customer service representative named "Pam" told Smith over Twitter direct message.

The FedExHelp Twitter account followed up: "Adam, on May 16, 2019, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and 68 of its global affiliates were included on the 'Entity List' which sets out a list of certain entities that US companies are restricted from doing business with. My apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you."

The account followed up, confusingly, "Adam, it is my understanding that to ensure our compliance, at this time we are not accepting any shipments to any of the listed Huawei entities."

But neither FedEx nor Parcelforce, which is part of the UK's Royal Mail, were doing business with Huawei here. (Neither was Ziff Davis at the moment, as we'd had this phone since mid-April.) Nothing was being shipped to or from any Huawei office.

Huawei spokeswoman Teri Daley replied on Twitter that this is "a complete misinterpretation of the [executive order/entity list,]" the US government decisions which are causing trade trouble for Huawei right now.

This is a complete misinterpretation of the EO/EL. — Teri Daley (@TeriDaley) June 21, 2019

We've contacted FedEx's main media relations team, but they haven't been able to come up with any further explanation. It looks like someone at FedEx is interpreting the current government action against Huawei as banning all Huawei products from entering the country at all.

Send Your Huaweis by UPS

UPS does not seem to have the same problem. "There is not a general ban on shipping Huawei devices between United Kingdom and United States locations," a company spokesman told us. UPS only prohibits shipping products to "69 selected Huawei locations," all outside the US, which are listed in the May 21 issue of the Federal Register.

The UPS US Twitter account further confirmed, "I did see the article about FedEx refusing these shipments but I reviewed our information and policies and this is not the case for us. There is nothing prohibiting shipping a Huawei phone from the U.K. to the U.S."

On May 25, Huawei was hit by a Commerce Department ban on US firms supplying technology to the company. Most notably, that froze Huawei's ability to use Google's Android software and ARM's processor designs. While Huawei was issued a temporary reprieve until Aug. 19, Huawei has said it is developing its own OS, called Hongmeng, and its own app stores. The company is also effectively barred from selling infrastructure equipment to US network providers right now.

None of these moves so far have been a total ban on importing any Huawei phones, or transferring already-owned Huawei phones into the country. It looks like FedEx may now be going above and beyond even the Trump administration to enforce that ban on its own.

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