Congress should require Internet companies in China to protect user information short of “formal legal action” by authorities and report all handovers to the U.S., a congressional commission said Thurs. The annual report by the U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission also urged Congress to press Bush Administration officials to raise media and Internet freedom issues with Chinese counterparts and discourage the govt.’s jailing journalists. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should quickly file a case against China at the WTO for intellectual property rights (IPR) violations, the report said. USTR told us a case was “very likely” if there isn’t “significant action” by China, but it hedged on the timing for making the call.
According to a recent Textile Development Memo issued by the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA), on October 31, 2006 a U.S. paper producer filed petitions with the Department of Commerce (DOC) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking both antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties on imports of coated free sheet paper from China, Indonesia, and South Korea. The TDM notes that this is the first CV challenge in 20 years filed against a non-market economy country (China). The TDM further notes that this case may signal prospects for CV duty cases against other Chinese products. (USA-ITA TDM dated 10/31/06, www.usaita.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) frequently asked question (FAQ) document on electronic manifests (e-Manifests).
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.
A federal judge Fri. issued an injunction against Broadcom at Qualcomm’s request in the companies’ multifront war over CDMA technologies. The injunction, by U.S. Dist. Court Judge Rudi Brewster, San Diego, bars Broadcom from using, soliciting or distributing Qualcomm trade secrets, including source code. The companies interpretations of the action varied sharply. Qualcomm claimed a significant victory. Broadcom called the development a negotiated compromise with no effect on its business plan. The ruling’s text wasn’t made public immediately.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message stating that the system problem relating to Canada NAFTA claims for softwood lumber product tariff numbers that require the reporting of the province codes "XD" (British Colombia - Coastal) or "XE" (British Colombia - Interior) has been corrected. As a result, the trade can now file these claims. (See ITT's Online Archives or 10/25/06 news, 06102510, and 10/23/06 news, 06102310 for previous BP summaries.) (Adm: 06-1167, dated 10/25/06, available at http://www.brokerpower.com/cgi-bin/adminsearch/admmsg.view.pl?article=2006/2006-1167.ADM )
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) has issued a notice which sources state clarifies that evidence of offshore purchase is not required to accompany the DSP-5 license application to export a U.S. build-to-print drawing to be used in the foreign manufacture of defense articles.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a fact sheet on Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) features that will be coming over the next few years.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice, effective September 28, 2006, to notify the public that, consistent with April and July 2006 Court of International Trade (CIT) decisions, it will be withholding certain distributions under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (CDSOA, also known as the Byrd Amendment) that derive from antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties assessed on goods from Canada or Mexico.
Spamhaus will fight a U.S. federal court order barring it from blocking e-mails by an Internet marketer it deems a spammer, it said Tues. The case -- e360 Insight LLC v. Spamhaus -- took an interesting turn late last week when the plaintiff asked U.S. Dist. Court, Chicago, to cite spam-cop Spamhaus for contempt and order ICANN to suspend its domain name. It also raises questions about risks to legitimate e- mailers from overly zealous spam-busting, one lawyer said.