Wi-Fi advocates tell us that with the IoT growing daily, the FCC needs to act quickly to allocate other bands for unlicensed use, especially the 6 GHz band. A check of vendors at January's CES found the same dynamic as in previous years. Most devices rely on the same unlicensed bands, particularly 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. Wi-Fi exhaustion looms as an issue federal policymakers must address, Wi-Fi advocates said.

Wi-Fi advocates tell us that with the IoT growing daily, the FCC needs to act quickly to allocate other bands for unlicensed use, especially the 6 GHz band. A check of vendors at January's CES found the same dynamic as in previous years. Most devices rely on the same unlicensed bands, particularly 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. Wi-Fi exhaustion looms as an issue federal policymakers must address, Wi-Fi advocates said.

Wi-Fi advocates tell us that with the IoT growing daily, the FCC needs to act quickly to allocate other bands for unlicensed use, especially the 6 GHz band. A check of vendors at January's CES found the same dynamic as in previous years. Most devices rely on the same unlicensed bands, particularly 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. Wi-Fi exhaustion looms as an issue federal policymakers must address, Wi-Fi advocates said.

A free-market think tank based at George Mason University has published a critique of the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act, an idea that President Donald Trump is expected to feature in the State of the Union address Feb. 5. The bill (see 1901240017) would give the president the ability to raise the tariff on any item to match that of another country's tariff on the same item. As the Mercatus Center's paper notes, doing such hikes would not be legal in the world trading system's rules regarding Most Favored Nation status. The top U.S. trading partners -- outside of Mexico and Canada, since NAFTA means most goods are duty-free -- are Brazil, China, the European Union, India and Japan. If Trump hiked rates with each of them to match those countries' tariffs, it would increase the average U.S. duty from 2.1 percent to 5.4 percent, author Daniel Griswold said. It would raise duties on 45 percent of imports from those countries. In order to make it work, there would need to be almost 10 times as many duty lines, and it would "exponentially complicate the US tariff code."

Gear up for nearly a year of privacy debate over possible legislative edits to the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act, said a top state senator and business and privacy advocates in interviews. The law will be enforced from Jan. 1, though the attorney general has until July 1, 2021, to adopt rules and guidance interpreting CCPA. Final text will be “incredibly important” even for those outside the state because California is the No. 5 economy, said Mintz Levin's Cynthia Larose.

Gear up for nearly a year of privacy debate over possible legislative edits to the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act, said a top state senator and business and privacy advocates in interviews. The law will be enforced from Jan. 1, though the attorney general has until July 1, 2021, to adopt rules and guidance interpreting CCPA. Final text will be “incredibly important” even for those outside the state because California is the No. 5 economy, said Mintz Levin's Cynthia Larose.

In order for importers to be able to create certificates of origin under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, U.S. law will have to change. That's one of dozens of changes to statutes that will need to happen to accommodate the changes between NAFTA and USMCA. The U.S. trade representative shared the six-page outline of the needed changes with Congress late on Jan. 29, fulfilling one of the steps under fast-track consideration of the trade pact. The document suggests that USTR is still seeking a lowering of U.S. de minimis levels specifically for Canada and Mexico (see 1810190043), since those countries did not raise their de minimis levels as much as the U.S. negotiators wished.

China’s 2018 “digital protectionism and mercantilist” policies ranked among the worst for the sixth straight year, “undermining trade and competition in key tech sectors,” warned an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation annual report Monday. “While these forms of protectionism typically rely on behind-the-border regulations rather than tariffs to protect local firms, the objective and impact remain the same -- either to replace foreign goods and services with local ones, or to unfairly promote exports, or both.” Among China’s worst 2018 infractions was a new “standardization law” that shuns international principles and best practices and “could be used to favor local tech firms,” ITIF said. New rules could “potentially force firms to store data only in China if it is related to privately funded, commercially focused research,” it said. China’s refusal to reference its World Trade Organization commitments in the standardization law “raised further concerns about potential discriminatory intentions,” said ITIF. “Unique levels of standards,” combined with lack of transparency about implementation and enforcement “adds further uncertainty for foreign firms” there, it said. “Such nontransparent and discriminatory standards can act as a significant barrier to trade, especially for high-tech.”

China’s 2018 “digital protectionism and mercantilist” policies ranked among the worst for the sixth straight year, “undermining trade and competition in key tech sectors,” warned an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation annual report Monday. “While these forms of protectionism typically rely on behind-the-border regulations rather than tariffs to protect local firms, the objective and impact remain the same -- either to replace foreign goods and services with local ones, or to unfairly promote exports, or both.” Among China’s worst 2018 infractions was a new “standardization law” that shuns international principles and best practices and “could be used to favor local tech firms,” ITIF said. New rules could “potentially force firms to store data only in China if it is related to privately funded, commercially focused research,” it said. China’s refusal to reference its World Trade Organization commitments in the standardization law “raised further concerns about potential discriminatory intentions,” said ITIF. “Unique levels of standards,” combined with lack of transparency about implementation and enforcement “adds further uncertainty for foreign firms” there, it said. “Such nontransparent and discriminatory standards can act as a significant barrier to trade, especially for high-tech.”

China’s 2018 “digital protectionism and mercantilist” policies ranked among the worst for the sixth straight year, “undermining trade and competition in key tech sectors,” warned an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation annual report Monday. “While these forms of protectionism typically rely on behind-the-border regulations rather than tariffs to protect local firms, the objective and impact remain the same -- either to replace foreign goods and services with local ones, or to unfairly promote exports, or both.” Among China’s worst 2018 infractions was a new “standardization law” that shuns international principles and best practices and “could be used to favor local tech firms,” ITIF said. New rules could “potentially force firms to store data only in China if it is related to privately funded, commercially focused research,” it said. China’s refusal to reference its World Trade Organization commitments in the standardization law “raised further concerns about potential discriminatory intentions,” said ITIF. “Unique levels of standards,” combined with lack of transparency about implementation and enforcement “adds further uncertainty for foreign firms” there, it said. “Such nontransparent and discriminatory standards can act as a significant barrier to trade, especially for high-tech.”