World Trade Organization members should consider a digital trade facilitation agenda during the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in December and make permanent the current prohibition on customs duties on e-commerce transactions, said the International Chamber of Commerce in a Wednesday report. A digital trade facilitation agenda could help developing and least-developed countries lacking resources and technical constraints compete, ICC said in a news release: Global initiatives can help reduce “the temptation of introducing new protectionism.”

ZTE formally pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act through illegally shipping U.S.-origin items to Iran, obstruction of justice and making a material false statement, DOJ announced. The Chinese multinational company agreed to plead guilty to the alleged violations, pay $430.5 million in fines and criminal forfeitures, and to serve three years of corporate probation, during which an independent compliance monitor will review and report on ZTE’s export compliance program, the department had announced earlier this month (see 1703070042). Justice cited plea documents that showed ZTE either directly or indirectly through a third party shipped about $32 million worth of dual-use U.S.-origin wireless and wireline infrastructure hardware to customers in Iran between January 2010 and January 2016.

The International Trade Commission began an investigation into imports of Arris set-top boxes and remote controls that allegedly infringe Kudelski's patents, the ITC said Feb. 27. In a complaint filed in January, Kudelski and its affiliates OpenTV, Nagra and Nagravision said set-tops made by Arris, and voice-enabled remote controls made by Universal Electronics, are being imported for use with Comcast's Xfinity X1 service. Each copies Kudelski's patented designs, the complaint said. The ITC will decide whether to issue a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order banning import and sale of infringing set-top boxes and remote controls by Arris, Comcast, Universal Electronics and some affiliates. Arris declined to comment, and Comcast and Universal Electronics didn't comment Tuesday.

Three members of a conspiracy to smuggle counterfeit Apple iPhones, iPads and iPods from China pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, DOJ announced. It said Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe and Rosario La Marca conspired to smuggle into the U.S. more than 40,000 counterfeit electronic devices from 2009 to 2014. They shipped the devices separately from the labels bearing the counterfeit Apple trademarks for later assembly to avoid detection by Customs and Border Protection officials, DOJ said. Becerra, Volpe and La Marca each pleaded guilty to counts of conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit goods, smuggling and structuring of financial transactions.

There's “no rational ‘America first’ global internet policy that won’t break the internet,” said former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy Daniel Sepulveda in a Friday Facebook post. Sepulveda left the State Department in January a week before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who pledged to take an “America First” attitude toward trade and other economic issues. “The benefits of the democratization of power and opportunity that the global platform creates must be shared for our own good,” Sepulveda said. “And the challenges the global platform creates -- from enabling criminal or harmful activity to challenging jurisdictional control over the development of local societies -- do not allow for a situation in which we win and others lose by putting America first.” Either “we solve these challenges together or we all lose,” Sepulveda said. “As we close ourselves off from people, goods, and services from abroad, nations will respond, in part, by closing themselves off to us digitally or by trying to extract some price for continued interconnection. If our friends across the aisle want to head this way, at least do it consciously.”

The International Trade Commission will undertake the first of three reviews on business-to-business and business-to-consumer digital technologies, including on digital exports that might encounter trade barriers overseas, the agency said in a Friday notice. As part of its first of three planned investigations, the ITC scheduled a hearing April 4. The commission will accept requests to appear at the hearing through March 21, pre-hearing briefs and statements through March 23, post-hearing briefs and statements through April 11, "all other written submissions for the first report" through April 21, and will submit the first of three digital trade reports to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Aug. 29, the commission said. Pursuant to a Jan. 13 request to the ITC by then-U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman (see 1701180032), the agency anticipates releasing the second report by Oct. 28, 2018, and the third report by March 29, 2019.

A Missouri woman was sentenced to two years in prison by a U.S. district judge for selling more than $90 million worth of counterfeit cellphone components imported from China, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sherrie Householder, 59, pleaded guilty May 26 to mail fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, it said. From 2012 through 2016, Householder managed U.S. operations of Flash Technology, selling counterfeit cellphone replacement screens, batteries, cases and internal circuitry but representing they were made by Apple, LG, Microsoft, Samsung and other manufacturers. Wang Luo, a Chinese citizen, apparently shipped the counterfeit components to Householder from China. After numerous seizures of shipments by Customs and Border Protection, Householder continued selling the cellphone components despite knowing they were counterfeit. The court also ordered Householder to forfeit $556,938 seized from her accounts and pay a money judgment of nearly $9 million, ICE said.

President Donald Trump’s executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership disappointed the Information Technology Industry Council, but ITI said it’s ready to work with the administration on trade agreements that better reflect today’s technology. “There is no prospect for job creation and economic growth for the United States without an active trade agenda,” ITI President Dean Garfield said in a Monday news release. “We can’t ignore the fact that many trade agreements were struck in an era that predates the internet and the global economy which depends on data flowing freely across borders for people and businesses to sell goods and services anywhere in the world. We can -- and should -- improve trade agreements to reflect the critical role digital trade plays in growing our economy and to help tech goods and services compete more fairly overseas.” The Progressive Policy Institute "strongly" disagrees with Trump that it's "good news" to withdraw from TPP, PPI said. "The President’s hasty action on the TPP is bad news for American businesses and workers, for the American economy, and for America’s global influence.”

President Donald Trump’s initial executive actions include withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a freeze on recent regulations and a federal government hiring freeze except for the military. “We’ve been talking about this one for a long time,” Trump said Monday of the withdrawal from TPP, a trade deal that had been a priority for the Obama administration. Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, sent a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies Friday demanding a regulatory freeze pending review. “With respect to regulations that have been sent to the OFR but not published in the Federal Register, immediately withdraw them from the OFR [Office of the Federal Register] for review and approval,” Priebus said. “With respect to regulations that have been published in the OFR but have not taken effect, as permitted by applicable law, temporarily postpone their effective date for 60 days from the date of this memorandum … for the purpose of reviewing questions of fact, law, and policy they raise. Where appropriate and as permitted by applicable law, you should consider proposing for notice and comment a rule to delay the effective date for regulations beyond that 60-day period.” Trump also spoke generally Monday about his plans for taxation and regulation, in a meeting with industry CEOs including those leading Dell and SpaceX. “We are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies,” Trump said, according to a pool report. “A bigger thing … we think we can cut regulations by 75 percent.” Trump "decided to reconvene the group of industry executives in a month and have them meet on a quarterly basis,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said. Competitive Enterprise Institute Policy Director Clyde Wayne Crews, writing in a Forbes column, said "Trump will fail" if he "does not challenge and uproot the core premises of the unelected administrative state governing human innovations" in the telecom sector, among others.

Reps. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., introduced HR-498 Thursday to “authorize the exportation of consumer communication devices to Cuba and the provision of telecommunications services to Cuba,” the bill text said. It’s referred to both the Foreign Affairs and Commerce committees.