The U.S. should consider new export controls on items used in rare earth magnet production, which could aid domestic rare earth producers, the Commerce Department said in a report this week. The report, part of a Section 232 investigation into the effects of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets on national security, said export controls could dissuade U.S. suppliers from shipping rare earths out of the U.S. The administration should “evaluate the use of export controls for domestic producers who face difficulties acquiring feedstocks from domestic sources due to competition with foreign consumers.”
The FCC committed nearly $55 million in additional Emergency Connectivity Fund Support, totaling more than $5.9 billion to date, said a news release Wednesday. The new funding will support more than 200 schools, 20 libraries and 2 consortiums. The Wireline Bureau also granted petitions from the Evans-Brant Central School District in Angola, New York; Lummi Nation School in Bellingham, Washington; and Naaleh High School for Girls in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, to waive the third ECF application filing window deadline, in an order Wednesday. The bureau said each petitioner faced technical issues when attempting to access the ECF portal, and remanded their applications to the Universal Service Administrative Co. for review.
The U.S.'s reversal of its position by refusing to allow plaintiff Oman Fasteners to post bond for its potential Section 232 steel and aluminum liability "smacks of outright bad faith," Oman Fasteners argued in a Sept. 20 emergency motion to compel at the Court of International Trade. The plaintiff argued that the court should compel the U.S. to comply with an order it issued in April, otherwise the U.S. could "artificially inflate" the exporter's dumping margin in an ongoing antidumping proceeding, "permanently costing Oman Fasteners millions of dollars" (Oman Fasteners v. United States, CIT #20-00037).
A Bureau of Industry and Security official confirmed the agency sent letters to specific companies restricting their ability to export certain artificial intelligence-related chips to China, and said more restrictions may be coming. In the agency’s first public comments on the matter, Thea Kendler, BIS assistant secretary-export administration, said the agency hopes the letters help inform industry about the types of exports the agency is scrutinizing.
The Commerce Department is finalizing a two-year waiver from antidumping and countervailing duties for solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam that are subject to ongoing anticircumvention inquiries. The agency’s Sept. 16 final rule mandates that no suspension of liquidation, cash deposit requirements or AD/CV duty assessments will apply until June 6, 2024, in the event that Commerce finds circumvention of Chinese solar cells duties, though the grace period could be terminated earlier, and the solar cells must now be used within a certain period to qualify.
A Bureau of Industry and Security official last week confirmed the agency sent letters to specific companies restricting their ability to export certain artificial intelligence-related chips to China, and said more restrictions may be coming. In the agency’s first public comments on the matter, Thea Kendler, BIS’s assistant secretary for export administration, said the agency hopes the letters help inform industry about the types of exports the agency is scrutinizing.
Ahead of an NTIA spectrum policy symposium Monday, the Aspen Institute released a paper Thursday urging the U.S. government to “issue a 10-year plan with clear national goals to release more spectrum into the commercial marketplace.” The paper follows a May meeting at the institute, which included FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and is seen as a possible precursor to a long-awaited strategy (see 2208150035). “The National Spectrum Strategy should make a clear statement of national spectrum goals -- agreed to by the FCC and the Administration -- that sets a roadmap for rulemaking and administrative actions over the next decade,” the paper said: “Clear, quantifiable goals provide a lodestar for whole-of-government action. They also help various stakeholders plan for the future and can influence technology development and resource allocation by private actors.” The strategy should plan for the allocation of three of four bands, below 15 GHz, each offering approximately 400 MHz of bandwidth, Aspen said: “Realizing this goal would enable multiple network operators to use 400 MHz channels in lower, better propagating bands as a foundation for multi-gigabit 6G.” The paper proposed making the highest bands, above 95 GHz, unlicensed by default. “Although the FCC recently authorized use of bands above 95 GHz, technology is still in early stages and the band is only sparsely used,” the paper said. “Given the inherent limited and highly directional signal propagation at these frequencies along with the super abundance of bandwidth, any concerns raised regarding interference in these bands should take a back seat to maximizing spectrum access and innovation.” Aspen suggested the White House “could set out the country’s overall spectrum goals through an Executive Order.” The group supports revising congressional budgeting to be “spectrum policy neutral.” Current scoring rules “consider inflows of auction revenues but do not account for economic benefits of other spectrum authorization approaches,’ Aspen said. “As a result, spectrum auction directives are often legislated as a ‘pay for’ to offset some Congressional spending priority. Congress should consider revising the rules to level the legislative playing field for other ways of making spectrum available into the commercial market, such as unlicensed or shared uses.” CTIA appreciates "the report’s focus on ensuring a balanced spectrum policy and its recognition of the need for additional licensed spectrum to meet growing demand and support the development of next-generation wireless networks,” a spokesperson emailed. “We must not lose focus on the pressing need for a pipeline of exclusive-use, licensed commercial spectrum, especially mid-band spectrum, in order to maintain America’s leadership of the emerging 5G economy.”
TikTok has employees in Beijing as do many other global tech companies, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas told the Senate Homeland Security Committee during a hearing Wednesday.
President Joe Biden this week signed the first executive order to give specific presidential direction to how the U.S. conducts foreign direct investment reviews, a move officials hope will sharpen the country's focus on sensitive technologies, personal data and other national security-related issues.
The Commerce Department is finalizing a two-year reprieve for imports of solar cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam but is adding an important caveat – that exempt solar cells be used or installed in the U.S. within 180 days of the end of the grace period. Commerce’s final rule waives suspension of liquidation and collection of AD/CV duties on the Southeast Asian solar cells until June 6, 2024, in the event Commerce issues affirmative determinations in its ongoing anti-circumvention inquiries prior to that date. Commerce may end the grace period earlier if the national emergency the reprieve is based upon is terminated.