FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said “the evidence in the Internet marketplace does not justify dramatic regulatory change solely for the purpose of assuaging fears that have not materialized.” Those remarks came at a discussion Thursday on the net neutrality Title II debate. All panelists at the event opposed Title II regulation. The commission could take “targeted action” when “concrete misfortunes arise,” Pai said at an Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) discussion. “But otherwise we should recognize net neutrality and the Title II debate for what it is -- a great distraction."

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said “the evidence in the Internet marketplace does not justify dramatic regulatory change solely for the purpose of assuaging fears that have not materialized.” Those remarks came at a discussion Thursday on the net neutrality Title II debate. All panelists at the event opposed Title II regulation. The commission could take “targeted action” when “concrete misfortunes arise,” Pai said at an Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) discussion. “But otherwise we should recognize net neutrality and the Title II debate for what it is -- a great distraction."

Increased use of Chinese data to verify the true exporter of merchandise could make it tougher for Chinese exporters to engage in “funneling” schemes used to enter product at lower antidumping and countervailing duty cash deposit rates. The longstanding use of "funneling" involves one Chinese exporter using another exporter’s lower cash deposit rate by falsely claiming the latter exported the goods. Although often times non-resident shell companies are on the U.S.-end of such transactions, legitimate importers need to be careful they don’t get caught up in the schemes, some customs lawyers said. The consequence could be a drastic increase in the importer’s duty liability if the Commerce Department finds out.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) launched a Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) Facility initiative on July 22 in order to ensure least-developed and developing countries are provided the necessary support for implementation of the required reforms, the body said in an announcement. Some developed countries have already indicated their commitments to donate resources, while others will soon be able to follow suit, the statement added. The facility will act as the “focal point” of the implementation efforts and will begin to operate once the agreement is formally adopted by WTO members, said the WTO.

DirecTV and Dish Network continued to urge the FCC not to amend its schedule of regulatory fees to treat direct broadcast satellite operators like cable operators. The FCC lacks legal authority to engage in such a permitted amendment under the Communications Act, “and cannot justify such action under the Administrative Procedure Act,” the satellite TV companies said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-92 (http://bit.ly/1nbcDoc). DBS operators have never generated, “and do not generate now, anything approaching the regulatory costs that cable operators do,” they said. Adopting such a proposal “would raise any other number of logistical and implementation concerns, none of which have been sufficiently considered,” they said.

The draft version of the LPTV and Translator Act unveiled by the House Communications Subcommittee Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1u0pRcH) and written by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, leaves some key stakeholders uncertain. But some advocates for such low-power TV issues argue it’s a crucial first step and are thrilled to see Congress raising the profile of the issue ahead of the FCC broadcast TV spectrum incentive auction, slated for mid-2015. They told us people should be prepared for the discussion draft to evolve.

The FCC should “do nothing” that would upset the balance struck in the 2010 Open Internet order, which “balanced concerns about Internet openness with the need to maintain incentives for Internet service providers to continue investing in advanced networks,” AT&T said. The commission has “ample statutory authority under section 706 to adopt new rules that replicate the balance struck in 2010” including new no-blocking and nondiscrimination rules, it said: The record is “devoid of evidence of any actual threat to Internet openness that could possibly warrant heavy-handed regulation, and any such rules would be” highly vulnerable to legal challenge. “And if there is one thing that all parties to this proceeding can agree on, it is that the Commission should ground its rules on a solid legal foundation to avoid the turmoil and investment-deterring uncertainty that would follow yet another judicial remand,” it said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., questioned the consolidation sweeping the industry and pointed to what they see as transformation afoot in many ways, especially in online video, during a hearing on the future of video Wednesday. But Commerce will not consider Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) reauthorization until September, following the August recess, they announced. Rockefeller and Thune are collaborating on a draft that they say may revamp video marketplace rules.

The automation of the bond application and approval process would likely limit the risk of litigation with CBP and aid the agency in collecting bonds on unpaid antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD), said government officials at a July 16 Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing held on trade enforcement. The U.S. government is owed an estimated $2.3 billion in unpaid duties, accumulated over more than 20 years, said Rich DiNucci, Acting Assistant Commissioner for the CBP Office of International Trade, at the hearing. Nearly half of that figure has been protested at some point during that time period, and CBP denied 84 percent of those protests, DiNucci added.

Larry Pressler wants to move a Communications Act overhaul within the first half year of re-election to the Senate, he told us. More than a decade and a half ago, the then-Republican senator from South Dakota authored the 1996 Telecom Act in that chamber but lost his re-election bid to current Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat. Johnson’s retirement this year prompted the 72-year-old Pressler to run for the open South Dakota seat as an independent candidate, his eye again on telecom.