The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Undaunted by legal issues flagged by Frontier Communications, the California Public Utilities Commission greenlit a proposed program to enforce conditions in its order clearing the telco’s bankruptcy reorganization. Commissioners unanimously adopted the draft resolution T-17734 as part of its consent agenda at a virtual Thursday meeting. In another CPUC proceeding, telcos asked what disaster recovery rules have to do with the agency’s broadband rulemaking.
Emergency communications have improved since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, including the launch of FirstNet, but problems persist, said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), chair of the House Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery Subcommittee, during a virtual hearing Thursday. The Homeland Security Committee panel heard from first responders who warned of funding shortfalls and that many areas are falling further behind as technology advances.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is considering requesting public comments on new export controls for certain brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. The agency sent the pre-rule for interagency review Oct. 5 and said it hopes to determine whether BCI represents an emerging technology important to U.S. national security and whether “effective controls can be implemented.”
Italian smart home company Nice acquired Nortek Security & Control from Melrose Industries in a deal valued at $285 million, said the buyer Tuesday. The purchase includes Nortek’s broad portfolio of brands for the custom installation market: 3Gig, Elan, Linear, MightyMule, Proficient, SpeakerCraft, Gefen, Xantech, Panamax, Furman, numera and IntelliVision. The move shores up Nice’s presence in North America, doubles its R&D capacity, and will accelerate development of platform-based integrated solutions, it said. Nice, whose North America brand portfolio includes Abode, Nice and HySecurity, now employs over 3,000 people across five continents, has 16 R&D centers and manufacturing facilities and has partners and customers in over 100 countries, said Nice Chairman Lauro Buoro. Business will be conducted as usual throughout 2022, the company said. Nice's North American organization will immediately begin collaborating with the Nortek Security & Control team on blending portfolios and operations “to emerge fully integrated in 2023.” It’s the second major acquisition of a major U.S. custom-channel business announced by a European firm recently. Assa Abloy agreed to buy Spectrum’s Kwikset, Baldwin, Weiser, Pfister and National Hardware brands last month for $4.3 billion (see 2109150056).
The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy is seeking public comments on a national plan to increase advanced manufacturing competitiveness, according to an Oct. 5 notice. The agency is seeking information from industry about which emerging technologies will be “key” to help the U.S. compete globally in the next generation of advanced manufacturing, how the U.S. should prioritize research and development strategies, and how the government can support transfers of intellectual property and technologies in ways that help U.S. companies and protect national security. The notice comes as both the Biden administration and Congress seek to provide support and incentives to U.S. advanced technology sectors to better compete with China and safeguard supply chains (see 2107280051, 2105110017 and 2106180019). Comments are due Dec. 17.
The National Retail Federation took a hard line on the Biden administration staying the course on Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports while seeking to reengage Beijing in bilateral trade talks (see 2110040025). U.S. businesses “continue to be severely impacted by the tariffs put into place by the previous administration,” said David French, NRF senior vice president-government relations. “The continuation of these harmful tariffs worsens the challenges thousands of retailers must navigate, especially at a time when many are only beginning to emerge from the serious economic damage they have suffered as a result of the global pandemic,” he said Monday. “It is critical the administration initiate immediate discussions with China so we can level the international playing field and bring an end to the global supply chain disruption.” The U.S. plans to “directly engage with China” to hold Beijing accountable for its phase one trade deal commitments, while keeping the existing tariffs in place but launching a “targeted” new tariff exclusion process, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told a Center for Strategic and International Studies conference Monday.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add export controls on certain biological equipment software that may be exploited for biological weapons purposes (see 2109290011), the agency said in an Oct. 5 final rule. The rule, issued in proposed form in November 2020, will align U.S. controls with the multilateral Australia Group by placing restrictions on exports of “nucleic acid assembler and synthesizer” software “capable of designing and building functional genetic elements from digital sequence data,” BIS said. The agency said the software will be added to the Commerce Control List as an emerging technology and falls under BIS’s efforts under the Export Control Reform Act (see 2109080062).
Oleg Nikitin, Russian national and owner of St. Petersburg-based energy company KS Engineering, was sentenced to federal prison for scheming to evade U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. Nikitin was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations. Nikitin was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and is subject to deportation when his sentence ends. KSE, along with Italian company GVA International Oil and Gas Services, will serve five years' probation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Oleg Nikitin, Russian national and owner of St. Petersburg-based energy company KS Engineering, was sentenced to federal prison for scheming to evade U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. Nikitin was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations. Nikitin was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and is subject to deportation when his sentence ends. KSE, along with Italian company GVA International Oil and Gas Services, will serve five years' probation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.