House Commerce Committee legislation (HR-3125) ordering an inventory of federal spectrum takes a more detailed approach than a similar bill the Senate Commerce Committee approved on Wednesday (CED July 9 p1). The Senate bill seeks identification of services on bands spanning 300 MHz to 3.5 GHz, while the House would examine a broader swath from 225 MHz to 10 GHz. The House bill also explicitly would ask the FCC and NTIA to provide recommendations for reallocation of the “least utilized” spectrum detected in the inventory, and provide an explanation for their suggestions.

The International Trade Commission has announced the institution of investigations and the commencement of preliminary phase antidumping and countervailing duty injury investigations regarding certain narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge from China and Taiwan.

The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review of certain frozen warmwater shrimp from India for the period of February 1, 2007 through January 31, 2008.

The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review of certain cased pencils from China for the period of December 1, 2006 through November 30, 2007.

The International Trade Administration has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping duty administrative reviews:

The International Trade Administration frequently issues notices on antidumping and countervailing duty orders, investigations, etc. which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued, neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period, etc.

The International Trade Administration has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping duty administrative reviews:

A preliminary investigation by the Department of Justice and letter by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., on wireless competition likely will not lead to much, but will send a clear signal to the FCC about the need to ask more questions, Stifel Nicolaus said Wednesday in a research report. “We do not think legislation or antitrust enforcement action is likely, certainly not in the near term,” the research firm said. “But we do see the stepped-up attention as increasing pressure on the FCC to take action on some subset of the issues and on the industry to consider modifying some of their practices.” FCC officials said this week it remains unclear what follow up steps, if any, the commission may take under Chairman Julius Genachowski. He and his staff are still in the process of meeting with FCC staff and getting a better handle on various issues confronting the agency. “We see this week’s DOJ and Senate antitrust actions as significant more for the informal pressure they put on industry and the support (or pressure) they provide the new FCC as it considers the range of issues including special access, roaming, [handset] exclusivity, and spectrum,” Stifel Nicolaus said. “Ultimately, the agency may find ways to address the competitive concerns without re-regulating, such as encouraging the carriers to extend to handset exclusivity the model they set by reducing early termination fees, making additional spectrum available to promote competitive backhaul facilities, or extending conditions to merger reviews. But we believe there will be intractable issues without a happy ending where the FCC will need to make the tough decisions whether to increase regulation.”

Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, asked the Justice Department and the FCC to investigate uncompetitive practices in the wireless industry. The Wisconsin Democrat chaired a hearing June 16, which examined many of the issues raised in the letter. Kohl had decided to send the letter before news broke this week that DoJ had taken preliminary steps toward a more formal investigation (CD June 7 p1), Hill sources said Tuesday.

The International Trade Administration has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping duty administrative review: