Makers of RF devices can still put on traditional FCC logos, even though the regulator last month agreed to allow e-labeling as part of an overhaul of Part 2 equipment authorization rules (see 1707130032), an official said Thursday. Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp and Rashmi Doshi, chief of the FCC Lab, appeared on a Telecommunications Industry Association webinar. Doshi said e-labeling isn't a mandate. The order goes to some length to recognize that “the FCC logo is useful, even though we felt that making it mandatory was too much of a burden,” Doshi said. The label is widely recognized outside the U.S., he said. The Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are working with other countries on common approaches to e-labeling, Doshi said. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation has scheduled a conference on the topic for next month, he said. “We’ve already talked to Canada on some of the things that they’re doing.” Knapp said the U.S. is at the “forefront” internationally. “When I go to places like Europe or Asia, we’re always trying to inform people about what we’ve done in the hope that they will follow,” Knapp said. Analysis of RF devices is becoming more complicated, with systems on the market with multiple radios that are software controlled, Knapp said. “The balancing we’re trying to achieve is that you still meet the technical requirements, but you’re not doing 2,000 tests so that by the time you’re done the product is outdated,” Knapp said. “That really is the challenge.”

Newer models of Fitbit fitness tracking devices that use Bluetooth connections mean the devices deserve classification similar to smart watches, Customs and Border Protection said in an April 5 ruling released recently. Fitbit requested further review after CBP reliquidated a shipment of devices in 2016. The agency reconsidered that classification as a result of new features, it said. At issue are three newer Fitbit models that all use Bluetooth connections to pair with "smart devices." The newer versions "are more sophisticated and function differently," the agency said. The older model "could communicate wirelessly with a base station connected to a computer, but could not pair with a smart device via a Bluetooth transceiver like the instant devices," CBP said. That version also predated the "Fitbit App, which permits the user to access the full range of functions on their paired smart device," CBP said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urged President Donald Trump Friday to prioritize digital trade issues in a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement as a way to “set the highest possible bar” for the internet’s economic potential. “Our opening position in negotiations for NAFTA 2.0 should be a strong defense of American interests, which means that we should not begin” with elements of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said the letter. Trump withdrew the U.S. from TPP in January (see 1701240047). “Beyond data flow and data localization provisions, a modernized NAFTA should, among other things, secure the clearest liability protections for websites hosting user speech and commerce, the toughest bans on discriminatory licensing terms for online services, customs thresholds and procedures that work for small online sellers,” the senators said. They also asked Trump to seek “a copyright regime that is consistent with” the 2015 Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act.

July and August could be two of the busiest months ever for imports at the nation’s major retail container ports, possibly setting a new record as merchants enter the back-to-school period and begin to stock up for the holiday selling season, the National Retail Federation said in a Monday report. “We’re expecting retailers to import some of the largest volumes of merchandise ever,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president-supply chain and customs policy, in a statement. “That’s a good indicator of what could be ahead for consumer demand and retail sales, and it’s a sign that retail is going strong despite what you might read in the headlines.” Ports included in NRF’s Global Port Tracker database handled 1.72 million 20-foot-long cargo containers or their equivalents in May, up 7.3 percent over April and 6.2 percent over May 2016, NRF said. It estimates 1.66 million containers were handled in June, up 5.3 percent from the same month a year earlier. NRF forecasts 1.75 million containers will be handled in August, which would be up 2.2 percent from last August and would be the highest monthly volume recorded since NRF began tracking imports in 2000, it said.

Cellphone cases that include space to store credit cards or IDs are classifiable as containers and subject to a 20 percent duty rate, Customs and Border Patrol ruled. Unlike the standard cellphone cases that don't have storage space, inclusion of a slot for cards is a meaningful difference, CBP found. Classification of cellphone cases faced litigation, most recently with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirming an overturned CBP classification of OtterBox standard cellphone cases as “similar containers.” CBP's ruling last week responded to a request from Pelican Products.

Customs and Border Protection will soon announce a strategy to address the explosion of e-commerce imports, said acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference in Austin. CBP will combine engagement and education with internal changes that will help ports deal with surging volumes, he said. Enforcement will evaluate the compliance rate in "various e-commerce environments,” McAleenan said Wednesday. He said a recent five-day interagency operation at Kennedy International Airport in New York found a noncompliance rate of 43 percent of packages examined, with 800 intellectual property rights violations among nearly 1,300 noncompliant shipments. CBP’s e-commerce strategy will focus largely on small businesses, which are benefiting from the rapid expansion of e-commerce but “don’t necessarily know about international trade laws and regulations,” McAleenan said. CBP will conduct outreach and provide an “essential repository of information on clearance requirements,” he said. In combination with the recent increase in the de minimis limit to $800, the rapid rise of e-commerce caused shipments at some ports to increase by over 500 percent in the last 15 months, overwhelming what had been a “perfectly adequate staffing level,” he said.

President Donald Trump and his advisers “should not wait to force a showdown with China” over that country’s recently implemented cybersecurity law, said American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Claude Barfield blogged Friday. The law, which took effect in early June, drew opposition from many U.S.-based interests because it includes data localization rules (see 1612080077, 1703080067 and 1705150067). “The Trump administration should elevate the new Chinese cybersecurity law to top priority” in the two countries’ bilateral negotiations, Barfield said. “The administration should make it clear that if regulations under the new law damage US companies’ ability to compete in the Chinese market, the United States will not just protest -- it will act to institute reciprocal actions that close off the US market to top Chinese technology companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent.”

President Donald Trump's intention to roll back changes to U.S. policy to Cuba would be a setback for the American technology industry, blogged TechFreedom Friday. “One way or another, Cuba’s economic future is digital,” said Austin Carson, the group's executive director. “We’re separated by a mere 90 miles, but returning to a Cold War policy that failed for almost six decades is the best way to ensure that Russia and China -- not the United States -- will have the most influence on Cuba’s burgeoning tech and telecom sectors." During the presidential campaign, Trump said he would reverse the Obama administration's opening of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and, recently, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the president is reviewing the policy. TechFreedom said many tech and telecom companies from other countries can operate freely within Cuba, while American ones are "shut out by our own government." The organization said it's a member of Engage Cuba, a national coalition of companies, groups and others focused on lifting the decades-old embargo against Cuba.

Facebook added products for digital piracy to its banned commerce list this month. It's including "products or items that facilitate or encourage unauthorized access to digital media" to goods and services not allowed to be sold via Facebook, it confirmed Friday. Facebook's commerce policy also bans sale of animals, tobacco items and alcohol.

A plastic-covered paperboard album set to hold CDs and DVDs is classifiable as a duty-free album for collectibles, not as a storage container or box file, Customs and Border Protection said in a recent tariff classification ruling: The album set, imported by Target, is a composite good made up of three album binders and a slipcase, each made of paperboard coated in polyvinyl chloride.