Case Against US Commerce Department Filed By Huawei Over Its Seized Equipment


06/22/2019



A number of media reports quoting a court filing by the Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Inc., a legal case has been filed against the United States Commerce Department wherein the telecom equipment making company has challenged to examine whether the Export Administration Regulations covers the process of telecommunications equipment that had been sent by it from China to the United States, and then back to China.
 
Huawei and the US government have been at logger heads for quite some time now and this lawsuit is the latest addition to the battle between the two. The Trump administration has blacklisted Huawie for national security threats as it fears that the telecom equipment offered by the Chinese company could be used for spying against the US by Chinese agencies. All such allegations have been denied by Huawei and China.
 
A testing laboratory in California, US, was shipped telecommunications equipment, including a computer server and Ethernet switch, by Huawie from China, the company has said in the lawsuit. The equipment was later shipped back to China after it underwent testing. The company claimed in the lawsuit that there was no attempt by the company to obtain a license because there was no need for one.
 
The equipment however was seized by US authorities in Alaska and no decision has yet been made by the US administration about whether there is a requirement for a license to ship it, according to the court filing.
 
“The equipment, to the best of HT USA’s knowledge, remains in a bureaucratic limbo in an Alaskan warehouse,” Huawei said in its lawsuit.
There have been no immediate comments to the issue from the US Commerce Department.
 
Since the seized equipment could not fall under a controlled category, therefore there was no need for Huawei to apply for and get a license to ship it, the company had argued. The company has further argued in favor of not requiring a license by saying that the equipment was made outside of the United States and was seized when it was on its way back to its place of origin or from where it had been shipped. In the lawsuit, Huawei has asked the court to rule to either allow the release of the equipment or for the US Commerce Department to come to and announce a decision that the equipment was illegally shipped to the US.
 
Huawei was added to a blacklist by the Trump administration in its so called ‘entity list’ which essentially banned the company from purchasing products or technology developed by US companies without getting a license to do so form the US Commerce Department. And according to a statement by the US President Donald Trump, the complaints about Huawei could be resolved as a part of the trade deal between the US and China,
 
Acrimony between the Trump administration and Huawei was sparked after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou - the Chief Financial Officer and the daughter of the founder of Huawie in Canada last year at the behest of the Trump administration over allegations that the she had colluded to violate the US sanctions on Iran.
 
(Source:www.economictimes.com)