Advocates of special access regulation praised FCC plans to release industry data and commission a study of the business market for telecom services, the competitiveness of which is highly disputed. Some suggested the data analysis would support their calls for regulators to constrain the rates and practices of Bell/ILEC special access offerings to wholesale and retail business customers over dedicated circuits. Sprint said it was encouraged the FCC is moving forward with its “long-awaited, data-driven analysis” of the business market. “We are confident the data will incent the Commission to update 1990’s policies, which have undercut competition, innovation and productivity,” said a spokesman in an emailed statement.
Advocates of special access regulation praised FCC plans to release industry data and commission a study of the business market for telecom services, the competitiveness of which is highly disputed. Some suggested the data analysis would support their calls for regulators to constrain the rates and practices of Bell/ILEC special access offerings to wholesale and retail business customers over dedicated circuits. Sprint said it was encouraged the FCC is moving forward with its “long-awaited, data-driven analysis” of the business market. “We are confident the data will incent the Commission to update 1990’s policies, which have undercut competition, innovation and productivity,” said a spokesman in an emailed statement.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 7-13:
The FCC should give price-cap telcos broad relief from USF obligations to provide high-cost voice and Lifeline service in many areas, said AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom in filings in docket 09-197 in response to a public notice asking parties to refresh the record. AT&T denied the record needed refreshing and urged the commission to focus on giving relief to price-cap carriers, which are generally larger than rate-of-return carriers. USTelecom urged the FCC to grant its petition and other ILEC requests to eliminate USF eligible telecom carrier (ETC) service obligations where price-cap carriers receive no high-cost support and to de-link Lifeline from ETC designations. CenturyLink said the commission should address ETC obligations to offer voice in extremely high-cost areas and clarify that price cap carriers don’t have such duties in areas outside their actual incumbent wireline service areas.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 8-11 in case they were missed.
A coalition of domestic furniture manufacturers recently submitted a request that the Commerce Department clarify that occasional chests are exempt from antidumping duties on wooden bedroom furniture from China. In its Aug. 24 request for a changed circumstances review, the American Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade asks that Commerce insert language into the scope to resolve confusion over what qualifies as an exempt occasional chest, including two sets of detailed dimensional criteria.
CBP properly liquidated entries subject to antidumping duties within the required timeframe, which began when the Commerce Department issued liquidation instructions and not when it published a Federal Register notice of a court decision, CBP said in a June 24 internal advice ruling (here). CBP ruled in HQ H258962 that Alltrade, which imported pry bar sets from China, was wrong in its assertion that the six month liquidation timeline began with the Federal Register notice announcing the court decision to the public, called a Timken Notice.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug 31 - Sept. 6:
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) recently enacted a new law loosening the state’s tough requirements for labeling products sold in the state as “Made in the U.S.A,” said his office in a list of recently signed legislation (here). S.B. 633 (here) amends Section 17533.7 of the California Business and Professions Code to allow for “Made in the U.S.A.” labeling if less than 5 percent of an article’s value is from foreign components, or if less than 10 percent of the value is foreign and the components are not available in the U.S.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug 24-30: