The Trump administration should suspend duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences program for certain products from Thailand amid the “rapidly deteriorating economic conditions” from the COVID-19 pandemic, wrote CTA and 16 other trade associations Friday. The suspension, scheduled to take effect Saturday, would raise costs for U.S. employers already “struggling to maintain employment levels in response to shutdowns and falling demand around the world,” said the letter, which the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association also signed. They asked the White House to delay implementation for at least six months, “or until the current emergency ends.” Many of the 22 million U.S. jobless claims filed in the past four weeks “are the result of government-mandated shutdowns to help slow the spread of COVID-19,” said the trade groups. “Liquidity is a major concern for businesses of all types as we wait for the pandemic to slow and the economy to reopen.” The White House didn't comment Monday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency set 10 exemptions for exports of personal protective equipment (see 2004080018) and formally announced exceptions for shipments to Canada, Mexico and U.S territories, in a notice filed April 17. FEMA also announced exemptions for certain shipments containing controlled PPE, shipments traveling through the U.S. involving a foreign shipper and consignee, exports to military bases and more. The new exemptions were announced less than two weeks after a leaked CBP memo detailed some of the measures (see 2004160050).
National Emergency Number Association officials discussed “methods used to derive confidence and uncertainty figures in location estimation,” meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff on the FCC vertical location accuracy mandate, said a filing posted Friday in docket 07-114. “Such methods are a well-explored and always developing academic topic.” Also discussed: “Specifics of how a particular platform determines location are largely proprietary" and the interfaces "are well-standardized for interoperability purposes.”
Despite calls from industry and lawmakers, the Treasury Department does not plan to introduce new authorizations for humanitarian exports to Iran, said Andrea Gacki, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Gacki said OFAC’s current general licenses are sufficient, adding that the agency has not received many license applications to export medical goods that are not already covered by an existing exemption.
Commissioners are expected Thursday to approve 5-0 an order and Further NPRM allowing unlicensed sharing throughout 6 GHz, FCC and industry officials said in interviews last week. A few tweaks are anticipated, but no material changes, despite widespread concerns raised by many groups about harmful interference from indoor devices that don’t use automated frequency control (AFC). Chairman Ajit Pai said agency engineers fully vetted the technology and believe sharing doesn’t pose a risk to the huge number of incumbents across the 1,200 megahertz (see 2004060062).
There could be a dramatic increase on the number of Importer insolvencies in the near future unless something major changes, said Lisa Gelsomino, a co-chair of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) and CEO of Avalon Risk Management. “We're expecting that if things don't change soon there's going to be at least a 25 percent increase of importer insolvencies from last year,” she said during the April 15 COAC meeting. With many small businesses now shut down for about 30 days, a lot “really are not going to have the ability to pay, come soon,” she said.
The FCC provided more time for site-based and mobile-only wireless systems to meet buildout deadlines but not as much time as the Enterprise Wireless Alliance wanted (see 2003300041). EWA last month asked the FCC to waive until Aug. 31 a requirement that licensees meet deadlines between March 15 and that date. The Wireless and Public Safety bureaus said in a Wednesday order deadlines from March 15 to May 15 are extended 60 days. The action is to provide “temporary relief ... in light of the supply chain delays and other construction and equipment delivery delays that may occur as a result of COVID-19 and the declared state of national emergency,” the bureaus said. The decision to grant “even the relief they did was extremely welcome and much appreciated,” EWA President Mark Crosby said in an interview. The order leaves “the door open” for extensions if necessary, he said. It’s not a good use of FCC staff time to have to address numerous waiver filings as licensees find they can’t get projects built because of COVID-19 complications, he said.
State regulators will scrutinize Frontier Communications as the midsize carrier goes through bankruptcy, commissioners told us Wednesday. Some felt reassured by the company pledging uninterrupted service and no change to selling some systems in the U.S. Northwest and West.
Comcast appoints Candy Lawson, ex-21st Century Fox, senior vice president-chief compliance officer-senior deputy general counsel ... Pete Villano, ex-House Armed Services Committee, becomes Microsoft Azure director-government affairs ... Hunton Andrews taps Kevin Hahm, ex-FTC, as partner-competition and consumer protection.
Comcast appoints Candy Lawson, ex-21st Century Fox, senior vice president-chief compliance officer-senior deputy general counsel ... Pete Villano, ex-House Armed Services Committee, becomes Microsoft Azure director-government affairs ... Hunton Andrews taps Kevin Hahm, ex-FTC, as partner-competition and consumer protection.