Communications Decency Act Section 230 and similar language shouldn’t be included in trade agreements, House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., wrote U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai Monday. It would be “inappropriate” to export such language with ongoing policy discussions about Section 230, they wrote: “Given that our Committee closely oversees Section 230 and all portions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, we also hope the Office of the United States Trade Representative will consult our Committee in the future in advance of negotiating on these issues.” Pallone wrote a similar letter to the Donald Trump administration with then-ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. (see 1908060064).

SAP agreed to pay more than $8 million in fines after it admitted to violating U.S. export controls and sanctions against Iran, the Justice, Treasury and Commerce departments announced Thursday. The company came to settlement agreements after it voluntarily disclosed the violations, which included illegal exports and reexports of U.S.-origin software. Between 2010 and 2017, SAP and its partners in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and Malaysia released such software, upgrades and software patches more than 20,000 times to Iranian users, DOJ said. SAP senior officials knew it didn’t use geolocation filters to “identify and block Iranian downloads, yet for years the company did not remedy the issue,” the department said. The software maker didn't comment Friday.

Digital services taxes drove countries back to the negotiating table on international tax harmonization, and now it may be hard to roll back such DSTs, experts said. Many tech and other stakeholders oppose other countries' digital taxes. The U.S. was driven to talks again because so many countries were considering taxing revenue, rather than profit, of digital giants like Facebook and Google, Deloitte Managing Partner Bob Stack told a Washington International Trade Association webinar Thursday. "Countries need to commit to get rid of these DSTs. That's the deal to be had." Noting a U.S. proposal for Organization of Economic Coordination and Development member-countries to drop such levies, Miller & Chevalier's Loren Ponds said "it’s a matter of everybody dropping their weapons at the same time" and "nobody wants to go first." Georgetown Law professor Lilian Faulhaber reminded that most DSTs haven't actually been imposed. "Part of that is probably because USTR pushed back so hard," she said of the Office of U.S. Trade Representative. USTR didn't comment Friday.

Chief Judge Mark Barnett of the U.S. Court of International Trade signed an administrative order Wednesday that will automatically stay any new complaints filed in the massive Section 301 litigation before they can be assigned to the three-judge panel he shares with Judges Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves. Any lawyer seeking to lift the stay of a new Section 301 case must first consult with the plaintiffs' steering committee at least three days before filing a motion and must show "good cause" for the exemption, said the order. The court expects to determine the "appropriate next steps" for dealing with the new cases after the first-filed HMTX-Jasco sample case is resolved, it said. Barnett told Monday's status conference that he has been "monitoring the ongoing trickle of additional 301 cases.” Though the court has continued assigning the new cases to the three-judge panel, and all the cases have been stayed until HMTX-Jasco is resolved, “I do worry about the possibility, at least, of some future case creating a conflict that could require one or more of us to have to recuse,” he said of himself and fellow panel members. New Section 301 complaints continue coming in at the rate of about one a day. All the roughly 3,700 cases allege the List 3 and 4A tariffs on Chinese goods are unlawful and should be refunded. The 34-minute status conference was largely procedural and dispatched with a number of what Barnett called "housekeeping items." It was convened amid DOJ’s opposition to the refund relief importers seek, if they prevail in the litigation, on liquidated customs entries from China with List 3 and 4A tariff exposure (see 2104250002). HMTX-Jasco attorneys from Akin Gump seek a “protective” injunction to freeze unliquidated imports from being liquidated. DOJ’s response to the injunction motion is due May 14.

The Court of International Trade greenlighted a test case for GoPro to adjudicate multiple claims challenging a Customs and Border Protection classification decision, in a Thursday order. Judge Timothy Reif suspended three other cases brought by GoPro challenging CBP's classification of imported camera housings, subject to classification as “cases” under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 4202. GoPro argued the camera housings should instead be classified as “camera parts” under HTS heading 8525.

The Commerce Department is focused on gaining support for President Joe Biden’s jobs plan, which includes increased funding for the semiconductor industry, Secretary Gina Raimondo said: The administration also is reviewing China policies. “We are right now undergoing a whole-of-government review,” Raimondo told Commerce’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness. “It's fair to say there may be changes, but it's early for me to say what the changes might be.” Regardless of policy changes, she said Thursday, Commerce will look to hold China accountable for unfair trade actions. Legislators and others are watching how that affects Chinese telecom gearmakers (see 2104080006).

Thirty Republicans, led by Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, and seven Democrats, led by Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to renew expired Section 301 tariff exclusions on Chinese imports. “Some inputs for American manufacturers and small businesses remain unavailable outside of China,” they wrote Tai Wednesday. The senators, joined by independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, said expiring exclusions should also be renewed, to give companies time to modify their supply chains. They also said they hope the office will reopen applications for exclusions. “Such a process should emphasize transparency, speed, consistency, and fairness, and should acknowledge both the practical realities of global value chains and the broader aim of supply chain diversification,” they wrote. Reforming the Section 301 tariff exclusions process would be “very high on my radar,” if confirmed as USTR, testified Tai at her Feb. 25 confirmation hearing (see 2102250043). Her office didn’t respond to questions Thursday.

Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., are promoting their bill to guide government investments in advanced manufacturing or industrial research. Their new National Strategy to Ensure American Leadership Act would ask the National Academies to identify which technologies will be the critical ones in five to 10 years. Van Hollen discussed with reporters Monday U.S. export restrictions to hinder Huawei, which is a 5G infrastructure leader, while the U.S. doesn't make much 5G equipment. “Everything we can do to prevent the existing cutting-edge technologies being used by Chinese military or others” should be done, and for Huawei and ZTE, the U.S. is also justified because they stole U.S. companies' designs years ago, Van Hollen said. Blunt asked, “Why weren't we ahead of Huawei, competing at the same time that they were?” Of technologies that will be as important in 10 years as 5G is currently, he said, “How do we prevent from this happening again?”

The U.S. and EU are aligning more closely on a range of digital issues, speakers said Monday at a webcast interview with European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va. Asked what their priorities are for the U.S.-EU digital relationship, Vestager said some key issues, such as secure supply chains, the approach to AI and the stance on regulating the technology sector, are obvious. Warner called for collaboration on values-based tech development that includes standards and rules on transparency and other issues. His key concern is the failure to create joint cybersecurity norms and policies, an omission he warned could be devastating. Cybersecurity must be part of every EU and U.S. discussion, Vestager said. Tech won't be successful if it's unsafe and people don't trust it, she said. Barriers to online manipulation of democracies must be integrated into everything stakeholders do and into digital skills people need as the first line of defense. When China or Russia sends hackers against a private entity or government, it will succeed without shared concepts of security services in Europe and the U.S., Warner said. On AI, Vestager noted that upcoming EC rules aim to be balanced and that their ban on certain uses of the tech will affect a limited number of cases. Warner hoped the U.S. embraces AI without subjecting people to discrimination, but this technology hasn't penetrated the U.S. policy world much yet. On content moderation on platforms, Vestager said the Digital Services Act sets up a systemic redress mechanism that balances the need to take down illegal content while preserving freedom of expression and imposes accountability on companies to ensure operations don't create risks. Platforms aren't doing enough to address disinformation, Warner said: Content moderation in the U.S. will come about in bits and pieces because the country has been so slow in addressing it.

Treasury began “enhanced bilateral engagement” with Vietnam early this year toward developing a plan “with specific actions to address the underlying causes” of Hanoi’s currency undervaluation against the dollar, reported the department Friday. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai signaled strongly this month that President Joe Biden's administration intends to keep U.S. allegations of Vietnam’s currency manipulation actively on the table (see 2104020009). Tai’s predecessor, Robert Lighthizer, opted not to impose remedial tariffs on Vietnam imports in the waning days of the Donald Trump administration for Hanoi’s allegedly improper devaluation of the dong against the dollar, but he did find Vietnam’s practices “actionable” under Section 301, leaving it up to the next administration to “continue to evaluate all available options” (see 2101150052). Vietnam’s “bilateral goods trade surplus” with the U.S. widened in 2020 to $70 billion, “the largest bilateral imbalance on record between the two countries,” reported Treasury. Vietnam’s exports to the U.S. grew about 19.5% in 2020, while imports from the U.S. decreased 8%, it said. “Vietnam’s growing bilateral trade surplus continues to reflect the country’s expanding export capacity, particularly in sectors such as apparel, technology, and electric machinery and equipment,” said the report. “The expanding surplus also reflects Vietnam’s deepening links with global supply chains, with Vietnam being one of the primary beneficiaries of the ongoing shifts in Asian supply chains.” Vietnam generated 19% of all smartphone imports to the U.S. in 2020, plus 5% of laptops and tablets and 24% of TVs under 35 inches, a segment of TVs that were in especially high demand last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.