Sponsors of a bill that would ban Big Tech platforms from self-preferencing their products are optimistic about passage, but two Republican holdouts shared reservations in interviews last week. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S-2992) is set for markup Thursday after being held over one week. The bill would bar dominant platforms from acting to prevent rival products from competing on their platforms.

DOJ’s inspector general highlighted “significant” concerns about the department’s intelligence gathering efforts for the discredited Steele dossier, the nominee to lead the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. The dossier by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent linked to the Hillary Clinton campaign, alleged Trump-Russia-linked interference in the 2016 presidential election. The IG’s reports were “very convincing” and detailed 17 omissions or errors in the IC’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications, said Sharon Bradford Franklin during her confirmation hearing.

FCC draft rules for the $14.2 billion affordable connectivity program were widely welcomed as more consumer protection provisions were included and several ACP changes were made to reflect challenges seen during the emergency broadband benefit program, industry and advocacy groups told us. Some sought minor changes to rules governing participating providers and connected devices. Rules must be finalized by Friday as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The Commerce Department properly found that importer Vandewater International Inc.'s steel branch outlets are covered by the scope of the antidumping duty order on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from China, the Department of Justice told the Court of International Trade in a Jan. 11 brief. Commerce's scope ruling is backed by a reading of each "(k)(2)" factor, including the physical characteristics of the steel branch outlets, the ultimate purchasers' expectations, the ultimate use of the product, and channels of trade in which the product is sold (Vandewater International Inc. v. U.S., CIT #18-00199).

Two “pertinent and significant” decisions at the U.S. Court of International Trade support the arguments of Section 301 test case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative overstepped its 1974 Trade Act modification authority by imposing the Lists 3 and 4A tariffs on Chinese imports and that it violated protections in the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act against sloppy rulemakings, said Akin Gump lawyers for HMTX and Jasco in a notice of supplemental authorities relevant to the Section 301 litigation, posted Monday in docket 1:21-cv-52. Both decisions were handed down after Akin Gump filed its final written brief in the Section 301 case on Nov. 15 (see 2111160003). In Solar Energy Industries Association v. U.S., decided Nov. 16, the court decided President Donald Trump “acted outside of his delegated authority” when he relied on a modification provision in Section 204 of the Trade Act to increase “safeguard tariffs” to protect the domestic solar panel industry against foreign imports, said Akin Gump. For the purposes of HMTX-Jasco, the court in SEIA said “reading the modification provision as a whole confirms” that Section 307 of the Trade Act “permits only reductions, not increases, in tariff actions,” as HMTX and Jasco argued, it said. The court’s opinion in Invenergy Renewables LLC v. U.S., decided Nov. 17, “likewise supports” the Section 301 plaintiffs’ arguments on APA violations when it vacated a USTR rule because the agency didn’t adequately address the significant comments “raised by opponents of the rule USTR adopted,” said Akin Gump. Oral argument in the Section 301 test case is scheduled for Feb. 1.

Two “pertinent and significant” decisions at the Court of International Trade support the arguments of Section 301 test case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative overstepped its Trade Act of 1974 modification authority by imposing the lists 3 and 4A tariffs on Chinese imports and that it violated protections in the Administrative Procedure Act against sloppy rulemakings, Akin Gump lawyers for HMTX and Jasco said in a notice of supplemental authorities relevant to the Section 301 litigation. Both decisions were handed down after Akin Gump filed its final written brief in the Section 301 case on Nov. 15 (see 2111160010).

CBP failed to require that a company accused of evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties provide adequate public summaries of its confidential information, and the agency also failed to properly review the administrative record, the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee (AHSTEC) told the Court of International Trade in a Jan. 10 reply to briefs submitted by the Justice Department and defendant-intervenors MSeafood Corp. and Minh Phu Seafood (Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee v. United States, CIT #21-00129).

The Commerce Department can calculate the separate rate respondent's dumping margin by averaging an adverse facts available rate and a de minimis rate in an antidumping duty review, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Jan. 10. Upholding the Court of International Trade's decision, the Federal Circuit said the separate rates in the past AD reviews trended upward, justifying the 41.025% dumping rate for the separate rate respondents.

The Court of International Trade granted CBP's voluntary motion for a remand in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation over magnesia alumina carbon bricks, in which Fedmet Resources was found to have skirted the order on magnesia carbon bricks from China. CBP requested the voluntary remand, with the consent of Fedmet, to go over key issues raised by the plaintiff, including scope-related and due process arguments (see 2201060035). CBP said it would review the administrative record and potentially provide public versions of certain confidential documents discussed in Fedmet's briefs, possibly alleviating one of the plaintiff's due process concerns by also giving it a chance to provide rebuttal information (Fedmet Resources Corporation v. United States, CIT #21-00248).

CBP wants the Court of International Trade to grant its voluntary remand request to reconsider its final determination in an antidumping and countervailing duty evasion case. The U.S. said the remand would allow CBP to consider the issues raised by plaintiff Fedmet Resources, including scope-related and due process arguments. Fedmet signed off on the remand request while the defendant-intervenor Magnesia Carbon Bricks Fair Trade Committee didn't directly oppose it.