The U.S. should boost efforts to counter China’s unfair trading practices and work closer with allies on trade restrictions, said Janet Yellen, President Joe Biden’s nominee for treasury secretary. The new administration will increase pressure and work multilaterally against China’s unfair subsidies, illegal technology transfers and other trade issues, Yellen told the Senate Finance Committee virtually in her confirmation hearing Tuesday. “China is clearly our most important strategic competitor,” she said, and the U.S. needs to “take on" China's "abusive, unfair and illegal practices,” including illegal dumping, trade barriers, lopsided subsidies and forced technology transfers, which are giving it an “unfair technological advantage.” If confirmed, Yellen said, Treasury will cooperate more with allies but will impose unilateral restrictions if they are warranted. “These practices, including China's global labor and environmental standards, are practices that we’re prepared to use the full array of tools to address,” she said.
ViacomCBS' Paramount+ streaming service goes live March 4 in the U.S. and Latin America, with launches March 25 in Nordic countries and in mid-2021 in Australia, it said Tuesday. It said its CBS All Access service in Canada will be rebranded to Paramount+ on March 4, with an expanded offering available later in the year.
China is “firmly opposed” to the Trump administration’s decision Thursday to add smartphone maker Xiaomi to a list of “Communist Chinese military companies” for new export restrictions, said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Friday. “What the U.S. side has done goes against the trend of history” and “violates the principles of market competition and international economic and trade rules,” he said. “China will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and support them in defending their own rights and interests in accordance with law.”
The Biden administration should prioritize addressing the threat of international discriminatory taxes against U.S. companies, the Computer & Communications Industry Association said Thursday. CCIA noted that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released reports in its Section 301 investigations into digital services taxes, concluding that DSTs in the U.K., Spain and Austria are “discriminatory against U.S. tech firms.” CCIA President Matt Schruers said: “Absent a proportionate response, U.S. exports will be unfairly singled out in other countries. Moreover, the proliferation of unilateral national taxes undermines the crucial work being done by the community of nations at the [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development], and risks the ability of negotiators to achieve consensus.”
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security loosened its license review policy for exports of certain drones controlled under export administration regulations. After similar action by the State Department in July (see 2007280006), this imposes case-by-case license review on certain unmanned aerial systems (UASs) rather than presumption of denial. The U.S. “remains committed to the goals” of the multilateral missile technology control regime, in which the drones are still controlled under a “strong presumption of denial,” but “rapid advances” in drone technology and “growing commercial uses” for UAS warrant loosened export restrictions, BIS ruled in Tuesday's Federal Register.
Samsung is using artificial intelligence to make consumer content “better," said Sebastian Seung, head-Samsung Research. AI upscaling takes HD content on TV and coverts it to 8K quality via the Quantum AI processor, he said in a prerecorded CES media session Monday. Giving a glimpse of the “not-so-distant future,” he showed an extendable robot with “arms” for the home. Samsung is working on upcycling, where end-of-life products aren’t pulled apart and recycled but used as “building blocks” for new devices and services, said Sandeep Rana, European sustainability manager. A Samsung Galaxy upcycling program “reimagines phones into new roles.” The company created portable eye exam devices with used Galaxy phones. This year, Rana said, Samsung is updating software in used Galaxy phones and launching the Galaxy Upcycling at Home program.
TCL is dropping the price of a 5G smartphone to 299 euros ($363.88) for the TCL 20 5G, which is selling in some European markets before a broader rollout, a CES news conference was told Monday. The 6.67-inch phone has a 48-megapixel triple camera and 4,500 milliamp-hour battery, said Tiago Abreu, head of design innovation at TCL’s X-Lab. The 20 SE is TCL’s least expensive phone, a 6.82-inch 4G model with quad camera and high-resolution audio, at 149 euros ($181.12). It will introduce three more phones, including another 5G model, later in the year. TCL will roll out its first Google TVs in LED, 8K and QLED TVs this year, starting in the U.S., Abreu said. Google Assistant will be integrated in the Google TVs, which can also be voice-controlled by Amazon Alexa for customers with an Amazon Echo product. TCL is unveiling two tablets targeted to education, remote learning and productivity applications. More details are here.
Beta test pricing of SpaceX's Starlink-delivered broadband service seems to be roughly the same in Canada and the U.K as in the U.S., California State University-Dominguez Hills information systems professor Larry Press blogged Thursday. He said SpaceX is seeking permission to operate in numerous nations; it has affiliates in at least five European nations, with one affiliate having subsidiaries in other European nations.
Section 301 investigations of India, Italy and Turkey digital service taxes found each country “discriminates against U.S. companies, is inconsistent with prevailing principles of international taxation” and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Wednesday. “USTR is not taking any specific actions in connection with the findings at this time but will continue to evaluate all available options,” it said. The Indian, Italian and Turkish embassies in Washington didn’t respond to questions Thursday.
Deluxe acquired Sundog Media Toolkit, said the digital content production company Thursday. U.K.-based Sundog markets an automated, cloud-based platform that creates specialized multi-format, multi-language files for theatrical distribution and streaming platforms.