Treasury issued a general license on Aug. 25 to authorize “new debt transactions” related to exports of agricultural and medical products to Venezuela, after President Donald Trump on Aug. 24 signed an executive order imposing a new batch of financial sanctions on the nation. “General License 4” authorizes financing and all transactions related to “new debt” related to the export or re-export from the U.S. or by a U.S. person of agricultural goods, medicine, medical devices, or replacement parts and components of medical devices to Venezuela, or to third-country persons buying specifically for resale to the country. Notwithstanding the general license, the transactions must comply with other agencies’ export application requirements and the Export Administration Act of 1979. Treasury also will allow exports and imports of petroleum to continue despite the sanctions, the White House said in a statement.

Apple, with its deep pockets, has the opportunity "to do something new and unique" in premium TV with its reported plans to spend $1 billion on original video content next year, The Diffusion Group's (TDG) Joel Espelien blogged Wednesday. TDG said licensing content would give it zero differentiation from existing MVPDs, but its own content would give Apple "something interesting on which to spend its already-committed marketing dollars, without benefiting other content owners." Pointing to the BBC putting out a small number of Sherlock episodes yearly, TDG said Apple likely will follow a similar model of a small number of high-quality shows that generate buzz on release and have a decent tail of shelf life. Rather than movies or sports programming, Apple might find more fertile programming ground in science-related reality programming, TDG said.

Apple, with its deep pockets, has the opportunity "to do something new and unique" in premium TV with its reported plans to spend $1 billion on original video content next year, The Diffusion Group's (TDG) Joel Espelien blogged Wednesday. TDG said licensing content would give it zero differentiation from existing MVPDs, but its own content would give Apple "something interesting on which to spend its already-committed marketing dollars, without benefiting other content owners." Pointing to the BBC putting out a small number of Sherlock episodes yearly, TDG said Apple likely will follow a similar model of a small number of high-quality shows that generate buzz on release and have a decent tail of shelf life. Rather than movies or sports programming, Apple might find more fertile programming ground in science-related reality programming, TDG said.

Registrations in the new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) may be a small percentage of total domain registrations, but registries are pushing for a new round and there's no reason that shouldn't happen, ICANN stakeholders told us. The question of whether more new gTLDs are needed isn't a good one, said Peter Dengate Thrush, who chaired the ICANN board during the launch of the last gTLD round: "Innovation doesn't proceed because of identified needs." Trademark owners said more extensive review of the last round is needed before any action. The overriding question is whether search and mobile apps are becoming more relevant than domains.

Registrations in the new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) may be a small percentage of total domain registrations, but registries are pushing for a new round and there's no reason that shouldn't happen, ICANN stakeholders told us. The question of whether more new gTLDs are needed isn't a good one, said Peter Dengate Thrush, who chaired the ICANN board during the launch of the last gTLD round: "Innovation doesn't proceed because of identified needs." Trademark owners said more extensive review of the last round is needed before any action. The overriding question is whether search and mobile apps are becoming more relevant than domains.

The White House is looking for someone to assist Grace Koh, special assistant to the president for technology, telecom and cybersecurity policy, government and industry officials told us. The administration is focused on Kelsey Guyselman, counsel to the House Commerce Committee, they said. The slot is supposed to be an NTIA slot detailed to the White House the same way Tom Power was during the Obama administration, officials said.

The White House is looking for someone to assist Grace Koh, special assistant to the president for technology, telecom and cybersecurity policy, government and industry officials told us. The administration is focused on Kelsey Guyselman, counsel to the House Commerce Committee, they said. The slot is supposed to be an NTIA slot detailed to the White House the same way Tom Power was during the Obama administration, officials said.

The World Trade Organization recently posted the following notices:

The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of March 27 (some may also be given separate headlines):

The International Trade Commission on Jan. 1 posted the Preliminary Edition of the 2017 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (here). The new HTS implements a wide range of changes to the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System tariff nomenclature, which forms the basis for the HTS, that took effect at the beginning of 2017. This is the fifth part of International Trade Today's multipart summary, covering machinery and electrical equipment of chapters 84 and 85.