The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released a statement on U.S. China trade relations which announces, among other things, that the administration has rejected a section 301 unfair trade practices petition filed by the AFL-CIO with regard to China's worker's rights policies. The USTR explains while there are serious concerns about labor rights and working conditions in China, the administration believes that trade and economic growth, among other things, will move China faster and further toward achieving results. (USTR Statement, dated 04/28/04, available at http://www.ustr.gov/releases/2004/04/2004-04-28-statement-china.pdf)

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued an interim rule, effective May 24, 2004, establishing a new certification program for foreign production sites in countries where Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 (potato brown rot) is known to occur that wish to export articles of Pelargonium spp. (e.g. geraniums) and/or Solanum spp. (e.g. eggplant, huckleberry) to the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an updated Industry Guidance which lists, and provides a written description for, the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers that are flagged in U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) entry system with imported food prior notice FD3 or FD4 indicators.

BellSouth said its first-quarter profit jumped 30% to $1.6 billion, but total operating revenue slid 0.8% to $4.98 billion. The results include $449 million income from sale of the carrier’s interest in its 10 Latin American operations to Telefonica Moviles, which includes an $11 million gain from foreign currency and a one-time tax benefit of $424 million. The transaction is expected to close in the 2nd half of 2004. The results don’t include the company’s 40% share in Cingular Wireless. Including Cingular, BellSouth said its revenue rose 2% to $6.6 billion, and its normalized income from continuing operations was $888 million, compared to $924 million in the first quarter of 2003. BellSouth said growth in revenue from long distance and DSL offset access line declines, keeping its Communications Group revenue flat at $4.5 billion. It said its total access lines of 22.1 million at March 31 declined 3.6%, compared to a year earlier, while residence and business access lines served by its competitors under UNE-P increased by 301,000 in the first quarter. The company added 636,000 long distance customers during the first quarter, to a total of 4.6 million, and 35% penetration of its mass-market customers by quarter-end. It said the growth was driven by unlimited long distance plans and new flat rate calling plans. It also added 156,000 net DSL customers, ending the quarter with 1.6 million. Led by DSL, data revenue slightly grew to $1.1 billion from a year- ago quarter. Operating margin for the quarter was 25.6%, compared to 26.3% for the full year in 2003.

On March 4, 2004, the Senate passed its version of H.R. 1047, the "Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003."

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a final rule, effective April 14, 2004, that adjusts for inflation the Customs Value or ex-factory price for certain disposable cigarette lighters to $2.25 (from $2.00).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a notice announcing that it is reopening through May 14, 2004 the comment period for its interim final rule on the registration of foreign food facilities.

NTN Communications subsidiary Buzztime Entertainment and EchoStar Communications said they teamed to launch a premium interactive trivia game service for DISH Network subscribers. They said the new in-home, multiplayer game service combined Buzztime’s proprietary Countdown trivia game format and large library of trivia game show content with EchoStar’s application software to allow DISH Network subscribers to play the games on their existing satellite set-top boxes. The companies said any DISH Network customer with access could subscribe to the trivia game service for $3.99 per month. Subscribers can choose from 6 categories of games: General trivia, movies and TV, music, sports, history, kids. They said up to 4 players at a time per set-top box would be able to play against each other using Buzztime’s Pass the Remote user interface. The software application for the trivia game service was written for OpenTV’s iTV middleware technology and the companies said DISH Network subscribers with various OpenTV-enabled receivers can use their remote controls to access interactive TV programs: Model 3900, 4900, DISH 111, DISH 301, DISH 311, DISH 322, DISH 501, DISH 508, DISH Player-DVR 510 and DISH Player-DVR 522.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a notice announcing that it is reopening until May 14, 2004 the comment period for its interim final rule on prior notice of imported food shipments.

EchoStar is asking the U.S. Dist. Court, Denver, for a jury trial and damages in 2 separate piracy lawsuits the company filed last week. One suit alleges Mediacom Communications Corp. was providing local ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX programming in Ga. using a residential subscription to EchoStar’s Dish Network. EchoStar said an investigator from its Signal Integrity division created a test pattern that would be transmitted to EchoStar’s subscribers in the Bainbridge, Ga. area during commercial breaks of network programming: “While the DISH Network signal was interrupted with a pre-selected test pattern, Investigator [Gary] Palka was able to videotape the patterns appearing on the [TV] sets of 2 individuals and separate Mediacom subscribers who did not have Dish Network satellite receivers.” EchoStar said it doesn’t have an agreement with Mediacom, nor had it authorized Mediacom to rebroadcast the Atlanta affiliate channels to customers. EchoStar seeks relief on 4 counts, including violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act “because [Mediacom has] circumvented EchoStar’s technological measures that effectively control access to the Dish Network satellite [TV] subscription programming services and the copyrighted works that it broadcasts.” EchoStar asked the court for a permanent injunction from wrongful retransmission of the programming and from representing “to current and potential subscribers that Mediacom is able to offer local channels to the Bainbridge, [Ga.] viewing area.” Additionally, EchoStar asked for unspecified damages, punitive damages and fees. Separately, EchoStar filed a suit against a Canadian man, Booker Cornea, for selling devices on eBay which would aid users in stealing EchoStar’s signal. In the district court filing, EchoStar said it reported to eBay 3 separate occasions when Cornea had posted items described as either 301 Dish Network receivers or Bell ExpressVu 3100 receivers. EchoStar said that items described as Bell ExpressVu receivers appeared in pictures to have Dish Network logos. While the descriptions of the items on eBay didn’t mention piracy or signal theft explicitly, EchoStar said they did mention the inclusion of “box keys” -- a number unique to each receiver which is used to pair a receiver to a specific access card -- and the removal of JTAG ports -- a device located at the bottom of the receiver which EchoStar uses to load test software but which is used by pirates to reprogram the box to receive encrypted signals for free. EchoStar alleges Cornea posted 5 separate items for sale on eBay. After eBay removed the items as requested by EchoStar, Cornea filed a counter notice with eBay, and said 3 of the items didn’t “involve infringing materials or uses.” EchoStar asked for relief including a permanent injunction against Cornea and his employees and unspecified awards of costs and damages.