The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review of certain steel threaded rod from China (A-570-932), which sets new AD cash deposit rates for over 100 exporters. These rates, which are effective November 4, 2011, are expected to be implemented by U.S. Customs and Border Protection soon.
At the October 4, 2011 COAC meeting, COAC and CBP officials discussed the work of the Global Supply Chain-Land Border Security Initiatives Subcommittee on issues such as expanding Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism to exports and cross-dock operations and providing a tiered C-TPAT structure for truck carriers. The subcommittee also discussed an electronic FAST concept with no stopping at the bridge or booth.
In conjunction with the October 4, 2011 COAC meeting, CBP posted an issue paper which provides an update on land border pre-inspection in Mexico and Canada. According to the issue paper, CBP has identified three possible pilot locations at which to evaluate cargo pre-screening and pre-inspection -- Otay Mesa, CA, Santa Teresa, NM (FOXCONN), and Port Huron, MI.
The FCC deleted a rule with backup power requirements for communications providers. The commission said the changes were “ministerial, nonsubstantive, editorial revisions” of a rule that never took effect in the first place because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck the rule down (http://xrl.us/bmhkjr). Tuesday’s order, published on docket 11-1838, also deletes rules requiring UHF TV translators on Channels 70 to 83 to “operate on a secondary basis to land mobile operations in the 800 MHz band and will not be protected from such operations,” that set aside “specified channels for Basic Exchange Telecommunication Radio Service,” and that created “a framework for the relocation of incumbent site-based licensees in the upper 200 channels of the 800 MHz Band.
The International Trade Administration has made a preliminary affirmative antidumping determination that certain steel wheels from China are being, or are likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value (A-570-973). The ITA found preliminary AD rates of 110.58% to 193.54%, which are officially effective as of November 2, 2011 for all firms but one. U.S. Customs is expected to implement these AD cash deposit/bond requirements soon.
The consumer demographic for the 3DS changed after the hardware price “markdown” that Nintendo imposed in the summer (CED July 29 p6), President Satoru Iwata said in a Q&A with investors that the company posted on its website on Tuesday. Initially, “the main consumers” of the handheld 3D videogame system were “those who could afford to purchase” it at the higher price at a time other than Christmas, he said. That translated largely to “avid male game players, who are earning a living and have relatively more” disposable income than other consumers, he said.
Consumer groups are up in arms over a bill to relax requirements on calls to cellphones contained in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The House Communications Subcommittee scheduled a hearing this Friday on HR-3035 to ask whether the TCPA went too far in restrictions on calls to wireless numbers. The subcommittee plans to ask whether the telemarketing rules’ mobile restrictions “are inadvertently preventing Americans who rely on wireless phones from receiving useful information, such as alerting consumers of harmful activity on their bank accounts, data breaches, and other pertinent data affecting them directly,” the Commerce Committee said. But consumer groups said the changes could reduce people’s privacy.
Easier site access, better optimization and handoff technology and more spectrum are critical for universal deployment of small cellsite technologies like femtocell, Wi-Fi and distributed antenna systems (DAS), speakers said during an FCC forum Friday. Small site technology, which was initially used to improve indoor coverage, could play an important role in LTE deployment, they said.
The International Trade Commission states it has received a patent complaint filed on behalf of Beacon Navigation GmbH, which alleges violations of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the U.S., the sale for importation, and the sale within the U.S. after importation of certain automotive Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation systems, components thereof, and products containing same. The next step is for the ITC to vote on whether to institute a patent investigation that could result in various settlement agreements with the named respondents and/or an exclusion order and/or a cease and desist order.
The Justice Department is announcing that the former president of Terra Telecommunications Corp. was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a scheme to pay bribes to Haitian government officials at Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. (Haiti Telecom), a state-owned telecommunications company. The former executive vice president of Terra was also sentenced to 84 months in prison for his role in the bribery scheme. According to DOJ, this sentence -- the longest sentence ever imposed in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case -- is a stark reminder to executives that bribing government officials to secure business advantages is a serious crime with serious consequences.