The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee used his perch to promote a bill he sponsored that would allow the president to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions; increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing the coercion; and allow the U.S. to more easily facilitate trade, including exports, with the coerced parties (see 2302230021).
President Joe Biden extended for one year beyond May 11 a national emergency that authorizes certain sanctions related to Syria. The Syrian government’s actions “with respect to chemical weapons and supporting terrorist organizations” continue to threaten national security, the White House said May 8.
The chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee used his perch to promote a bill he sponsored that would allow the president to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions; increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing the coercion; and allow the U.S. to more easily facilitate trade, including exports, with the coerced parties (see 2302230021).
FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Debra Jordan advised public safety agencies Tuesday to get ready as hurricane and wildfire seasons approach. Jordan noted the work the FCC did to improve the delivery of outage information to public safety answering points (see 2211170051), update wireless priority service (WPS), government emergency telecommunications service (GETS) and other rules (see 2205190057) and the “many recent” commission “actions to make the nation’s emergency alerting systems a stronger tool for public safety officials to warn and protect their communities.” Everyone should “prepare now for communicating during emergencies, especially when the power is out,” Jordan said.
CTIA urged the FCC to put the onus on covered service providers (CSPs) rather than originating service providers (OSPs) if the agency imposes 988 outage reporting obligations, the subject of a January NPRM (see 2301040056). “As 988 communications are routed centrally to a single, nationwide response point, unlike 911 communications, which are routed to local Public Safety Answering Points, it is unclear how OSPs could provide actionable information about local outages to the nationwide 988 Lifeline or other stakeholders,” CTIA said, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-5. AT&T agreed rules “must reflect the fundamental differences in service architecture between 911 and 988.” Competitive Carriers Association members don’t “oppose some level of 988 outage reporting and notification,” but also don’t “support duplicative or potentially confusing efforts,” CCA said: If the FCC imposes a 988 outage notification requirement on OSPs, “in many cases, a 30-minute timeframe would be unreasonable and unrealistic, particularly for OSPs utilizing vendors for 988 solutions. Any 988 outage reporting requirement should enable realistic compliance.” The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC rightly proposes rules based on 911 outage reporting requirements approved last year (see 2211170051). The FCC should also require that PSAPs be alerted of 988 outages, NENA said: “If 988 service is not available to a person having a mental health crisis, and they do not have knowledge of an alternative means such as dedicated online chat services, then they may decide to dial 9-1-1 instead.” The group said the 988 system should plan to eventually migrate to next-generation 911 technologies “as a matter of building a more reliable, equitable life-saving service for people with mental health crises.”
It’s getting more difficult for telecom companies to maintain cybersecurity insurance due to the constant barrage of ransomware attacks, NTCA General Counsel Jill Canfield said Tuesday. She highlighted some of the cyber hurdles telecoms face, during an FCBA webinar. If a company has more than one insurance claim a year, the insurance provider will start denying claims, and it’s not easy to find a new provider, she said. Itron Privacy Counsel Nicole Thomas agreed, saying threat actors are going to continue to attack due to the profitability of ransomware efforts.
While the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), an alternative to the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, may work for the nations that want an appellate level of review of WTO panel decisions, it doesn't necessarily make sense for U.S. purposes, said Jamieson Greer, former chief of staff for the U.S. trade representative and partner at King & Spalding. Speaking at a May 8 Federalist Society event, Greer said that if the U.S. wanted another level of review at the WTO, the government would simply just start staffing up the AB again rather than pursue a solution under the MPIA.
While the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), an alternative to the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, may work for the nations that want an appellate level of review of WTO panel decisions, it doesn't necessarily make sense for U.S. purposes, said Jamieson Greer, former chief of staff for the U.S. trade representative and partner at King & Spalding. Speaking at a May 8 Federalist Society event, Greer said that if the U.S. wanted another level of review at the WTO, the government would simply just start staffing up the AB again rather than pursue a solution under the MPIA.
A bill introduced in the Senate last week could create new export authorizations -- including a new open general license for certain defense exports and a new license exception for dual-use goods -- to expedite shipments to Australia, Canada and the U.K. The legislation, introduced by Sens. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., also would allow the State Department to hire more export license review officers, create a “fast-track” foreign military sales process, reduce barriers to information sharing within the Australia-U.K.-U.S. partnership and more.