This commercial space boom is fundamentally different from the one that collapsed in the 1990s, executives said Wednesday at a State Department/Commerce Department conference on commercial outer space. The industry should be able to keep growing with smaller satellite sizes and masses meaning lower payload costs, said Spaceflight Industries CEO Curt Blake. Lower payload costs "have really created a platform open to everyone now," he said.
The U.S. should negotiate deals and strengthen trade with Mexico, Korea and Taiwan, a move that would substantially help U.S. exporters, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a June report. The report offers several policy recommendations for Congress and the Trump administration to boost exports, including: sign a U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement, pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, “reanimate” the Trade in Services Agreement, continue stifling Chinese “innovation mercantilism,” and ensure U.S. export controls don’t hinder exports to Taiwan, Mexico and Korea.
More willingness to name and shame bad actors and stronger international requirements that satellites be actively brought down from orbit after their missions expire instead of waiting for drag and gravity were suggested by space experts Tuesday at Secure World Foundation’s space sustainability summit on an increasingly crowded orbital domain. As the pace of space activities and number of actors grow, there needs to be a shift from academic discussions to real-world policy debates, said Secure World Executive Director Peter Martinez.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer said he thinks the House could be able to have a vote in the fall on the new NAFTA. Blumenauer, from Oregon and one of nine House Democrats who are tasked with negotiating changes to the deal with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, said he expects the group will meet with USTR "at least once a week." Speaking at a Washington International Trade Association event June 26, he joked that Lighthizer spends so much time meeting with House members and caucuses, "I think he travels the world just to get away from us." Lighthizer is on his way to Osaka, Japan, for the G-20 meeting. He met with the working group the afternoon before he left.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., introduced a bill, the Reclaiming Congressional Trade Authority Act of 2019, that would require that any tariffs implemented on national security grounds -- whether through Section 232 or another mechanism, such as the national emergency on immigration -- be approved by Congress. The bill, introduced June 25, would allow tariffs to be in place for 120 days without congressional approval. It has a Senate companion bill, S. 899, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
Pillsbury Winthrop hires Shaalu Mehra, from Gibson Dunn, as partner-leader, global technology policy ... Senate confirms Keith Krach, ex-DocuSign, as undersecretary of state-economics and Privacy Shield spokesperson ... Senate Judiciary Committee OKs Edward Felten for member, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
The Trump administration is continuing sanctions against North Korea, the White House said June 21, citing the risk it poses to U.S. national security. The White House pointed to North Korea’s “proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material,” the destabilizing actions of the country’s government that “imperil” U.S. trading partners in the region, and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The sanctions were scheduled to expire June 26. The move extends an executive order from June 26, 2008, that declared a national emergency with regard to North Korea.
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added five Chinese entities to its Entity List, the latest escalation in the U.S. and China’s ongoing trade war. The move restricts the entities' ability to purchase certain U.S. products and will require licenses for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations with a review policy of presumption of denial. The entities are: Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit, Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology, Higon, Sugon and Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology. The Wuxi Jiangnan Institute is owned by owned by the Chinese government, Commerce said.
Industry is wrong in claims no technology now identifies wireless callers to 911 with more specificity (see 1906190011), Precision Broadband CEO Charles Simon told aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. “Precision Broadband has a solution, including a working prototype, that offers floor level and unit location data -- same as landline telephone service. We contend that the wireless carriers’ test beds have been designed to validate the [National Emergency Address Database] (for dispatchable location) and device sensor-based z-axis altitude technologies.,” the company said, posted Thursday in docket 07-114. “Such limited test plans, by design, exclude alternative dispatchable solutions like Precision Broadband’s Fixed Broadband 911 system.”
Trade groups that are lobbying House members to ratify the new NAFTA say they are trying to talk through concerns, and the National Association of Manufacturers' representative said she's seeing positive momentum.