The International Trade Administration (ITA) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have issued various notices, each initiating automatic five-year sunset reviews on the above-listed antidumping (AD) duty orders and countervailing (CV) duty orders.
Intel and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) backed Apple’s attempt to subpoena online news sites and an ISP with a filing Wed. to the Cal. Court of Appeals. Apple wants to learn how the sites got confidential information about its forthcoming GarageBand software. Intel and BSA agree: “All technology-oriented companies -- and ultimately all consumers -- share a strong interest in vigorous enforcement of the trade secret laws, including discovery to determine who may have violated those laws.” In court papers, the groups said strong trade secret laws are vital to Cal.’s high tech sector and the U.S. economy overall. “There is no public interest in having such trade secrets stolen and plastered on the Internet for competitors and others to see,” they said. If that occurs, victims must be able to seek court redress -- starting with discovery to see who committed the theft, they said. But Intel and BSA stipulate that courts shouldn’t approve “wild fishing expeditions” into media files. Apple is suing a handful of unnamed persons alleged to have leaked information on the project and is subpoenaing Nfox, the ISP of PowerPage.com publisher Jason O'Grady, demanding access to O'Grady’s communications and unpublished materials (WID April 12 p3). While Intel and BSA said they strongly support First Amendment rights, they see a “vast difference between cases where the media have simply reported on a misdeed by someone else and cases where reporters have wittingly or unwittingly participated in notorious activity.” This case illustrates that the media’s interest in concealing sources is stronger in the former than the latter. Genentech also filed papers in support of Apple this week.
The United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA) has issued a Textile Development Memo stating that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has lifted the preliminary injunction against further action on threat-based China safeguard petitions. As a result, USA-ITA states that CITA may resume its consideration of the 12 threat-based cases that were filed last year. (USA-ITA, TDM dated 04/27/05, www.usaita.com )
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site its Performance and Annual Report Fiscal Year 2004, which covers federal fiscal year (FY) 2004 (October 1, 2003 - September 30, 2004), with discussion of some subsequent events.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report entitled, U.S.-China Trade: Textile Safeguard Procedures Should be Improved.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of April 18, 2005. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, UAFTA and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 04/18/05, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
Questions remained unanswered Mon. after Electronics Boutique (EB) and GameStop said they had entered into a definitive merger deal that will see the latter buy EB for about $1.44 billion -- 70% cash and 30% in common stock. The combined company, to be named GameStop, will have annual sales of about $3.8 billion and more than 3,200 stores in the U.S. and about 600 international stores. It’s expected to become the #1 U.S. retailer of videogames, behind only Wal-Mart.
A coalition of Internet trade groups and publishers filed briefs in Apple v. Does Mon., urging the Cal. Court of Appeals to defend e-mail privacy and protect reporters’ confidential sources. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is appealing a Santa Clara County Superior Court decision in the case that lets Apple subpoena a reporter’s e-mail to learn the source of information on a story published about a forthcoming FireWire audio interface for GarageBand software code-named “Asteroid” or “Q7.”
A U.S. claim of victory in a dispute with Antigua over Internet gaming (WID April 8 p2) is “spin put on by the American administration,” Sportingbet (U.K.) Group CEO Nigel Payne told Washington Internet Daily. Last week the World Trade organization (WTO) Appellate Body ruled a U.S. ban on online gambling inconsistent with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and recommended the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ask the U.S. to bring its laws into conformity. The panel also said the U.S. had shown its laws are “necessary to protect public morals or maintain public order.” And it ordered the U.S. to clarify an issue related to online gambling on horse races.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have issued various notices, each initiating automatic five-year sunset reviews on the above-listed antidumping (AD) duty orders and countervailing (CV) duty orders.