Connected car activity is heating up this week at the Geneva International Motor Show, with automakers and electronics companies making technology announcements in advance of 2015 model year releases.
President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15) budget expands CBP staffing levels, proposing an unprecedented level of 25,775 officers, according to the budget released by the Office of Management and Budget on March 4. The budget provides $38.2 billion in non-disaster, net discretionary budget authority for the Department of Homeland Security and adheres to spending permitted in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 (see 13121924).
Several academics bemoaned what they see as the FTC’s opaque authority and lack of economic analysis, while others encouraged Congress to further empower the commission through legislation, during a House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee hearing Friday. But they all said the FTC is one of the more effective federal agencies. The hearing was sparsely attended by lawmakers and cut short after about 75 minutes for a floor vote.
Several academics bemoaned what they see as the FTC’s opaque authority and lack of economic analysis, while others encouraged Congress to further empower the commission through legislation, during a House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee hearing Friday. But they all said the FTC is one of the more effective federal agencies. The hearing was sparsely attended by lawmakers and cut short after about 75 minutes for a floor vote.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations continue to be hampered by gaps between negotiators on a broad set of issues, said a number of industry officials and analysts, despite repeated Obama administration claims that the talks are close to conclusion. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has recently ratcheted up pressure on Japan to deliver more substantial auto and agriculture tariff and non-tariff barrier elimination, indicating the fate of the pact may partially hinge on U.S.-Japanese bilateral agreement (see 14021902). But as the Singapore ministerial round of TPP negotiations concluded on Feb. 25, some say there are unresolved traditional and non-traditional areas of trade that pose obstacles to the heavily-anticipated conclusion of negotiations.
It would be helpful to eligible telecom carriers to be able to retain proof of eligibility documents ETCs collect when signing up Lifeline subscribers, Oklahoma Corporation Commission officials told the FCC. The FCC doesn’t now let ETCs retain the records, but carriers want to keep them in case issues arise. An ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/1fnixyA) filed Thursday said OCC Telcom Policy Director Maribeth Snapp and Regulatory Manager Jim Jones met with Wireline Bureau staff Feb. 7. The OCC officials explained the steps being taken to ensure that ETCs providing Lifeline service are complying with federal and state rules. OCC staff also suggested that enhanced Lifeline support on tribal lands be limited to those carriers that are building out infrastructure on such lands.
A major hurdle CBP will face in implementing a Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) for exports will be convincing industry that the program adds value, said industry and government officials at the Feb. 20 meeting of the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations. The COAC Trusted Trader Subcommittee spent the past few months reaching out to exporters to find out how to make C-TPAT for exports work. The lesson was that securing the supply chain isn’t enough; exporters will need to see tangible benefits before they sign on, they said.
The countervailing duty rate for aluminum extrusions from China (C-570-968) exported by Zhaoqing New Zhongya Aluminum is set to fall to 4.89%, after the Court of International Trade on Feb. 19 affirmed the Commerce Department’s recalculation of the company’s original investigation rate. Zhongya had been assigned a CV duty rate of 8.02% in 2011 (see 11052633), but CIT later took issue with the way Commerce valued land subsidies and remanded for Commerce to revisit the issue (see 13071901. Commerce didn’t set a new rate for Zhongya in the only CV duty administrative review completed since the original investigation (see 13123123), so the new 4.89% CV duty rate appears to apply to CV duty cash deposits on future entries as well.
On Feb. 14 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports:
LONDON -- British hi-fi specialty vendor Meridian Audio opened its first boutique store in London, its second in the U.K. after a location in Oxford. Like all other Meridian stores, it’s owned and operated by a dealer, in this case Rob Sullivan of RS AV in Peterborough. The London store, officially called Meridian West London, is on the famous Kings Road in the design and antique quarter of Chelsea.