A majority in the House voted to restore antidumping and countervailing duties on Southeast Asian solar panels ruled by the Commerce Department to be circumventing antidumping duties on the products from China, but the 221 votes in favor are far from a veto-proof majority.
FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin continued the FCC’s hearing proceeding on Standard/Tegna until June 1 -- effectively pausing it -- and denied broadcaster requests to limit additional discovery, said attorneys representing both sides in the case. Halprin made the ruling at a status conference at the FCC Wednesday that had been set to determine the deal’s schedule, attorneys said. The Standard/Tegna broadcasters requested an accelerated hearing schedule with no additional discovery (see 2304200060), but Halprin denied that request Wednesday. Standard General didn’t comment on the ruling, but the Standard/Tegna broadcast parties have steadfastly said the deal can’t be extended past May 22 due to the expiration of financing that can’t be replaced (see 2304180074). With a quick hearing out of reach, the FCC's reversing itself and voting the deal is likely the only road left to the broadcasters, attorneys said. The broadcasters are expected to try to put pressure on the agency through Congress, multiple attorneys said. “Until more recently, this summer, we never had a lobbyist in D.C.,” Managing Partner Soohyung Kim said last week at the NAB Show. “Now we are employing like half of D.C.” In a news release Wednesday, Standard General highlighted remarks from Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Tuesday saying he won’t support FCC nominees “if they are unwilling to support diversity -- including by acting in a way that denies a vote to a diverse applicant.” FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks -- the only commissioner yet to take a public stance on the deal -- is likely soon to be up for renomination. In a joint statement Wednesday, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, National Action Network, the National Urban League and UnidosUS urged the FCC to hold a commission vote on the deal. “As FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said in a recent speech on diversity in media: ‘We need to do better,’" the release said. “We will not call on the Commissioners to cast their votes one way or the other. But what we do demand is fair and equal treatment,” the civil rights groups said. “And, so far, ‘fair and equal treatment’ has not been the order of the day.” Starks didn’t comment.
Although President Joe Biden has threatened to veto a resolution that would retroactively collect trade remedies on some solar panels from Southeast Asia with Chinese inputs, several Democratic senators said they would vote for the resolution if it came up in the Senate. Biden had put a pause on the duties through June 2024, and announced the action before the Commerce Department made its preliminary finding that certain solar panels made in Southeast Asia should be considered of Chinese origin, and are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese solar cells.
The House of Representatives intends to take a vote this week to overturn the administration's decision to delay collection of duties for antidumping and countervailing duty circumvention in the case of solar panels made with Chinese components coming from Southeast Asia.
A resolution that would overturn the Biden administration’s two-year delay of antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and panels from Southeast Asia passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee 26-13 on April 19.
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals won't pause California's shift to connections-based state USF contribution while considering T-Mobile's motion for stay. The court denied the carrier's request for immediate administrative stay (see [Ref:2304100006). The California Public Utilities Commission should reply to the carrier's other request to stay the CPUC order while the case is pending by April 14 and T-Mobile may reply April 17 in case 23-15490, the 9th Circuit said.
Broadcasters are expecting to talk ATSC 3.0, the future of AM radio in cars, and FCC regulatory fees at 2023’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, which kicks off Saturday. It's the second in-person show since the 2020 and 2021 iterations were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Broadcasters, attorneys and industry officials told us they expect the show to be the best attended since 2019. “I don't think there's any question that will be a lot more people than last year's show,” said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford.
Australia will pause its World Trade Organization case against China on barley for three months while Beijing reviews its restrictions, Australia announced this week. China placed 80.5% duties on Australian barley in 2020. The parties recently carried out "constructive dialogue at all levels," leading to a three- to four-month reprieve in the WTO case, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said April 11.
Australia will pause its World Trade Organization case against China on barley for three months while Beijing reviews its restrictions, Australia announced this week. China placed 80.5% duties on Australian barley in 2020. The parties recently carried out "constructive dialogue at all levels," leading to a three- to four-month reprieve in the WTO case, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said April 11.
A federal judge again refused to pause California’s move to a connections-based contribution method for state USF. T-Mobile and subsidiaries pressed the U.S. District Court of Northern California Friday to apply a stay while they appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the district court’s previous denial of preliminary injunction (see 2304070043). Ruling Sunday, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler denied T-Mobile a stay of the California Public Utilities Commission rule. Beeler also denied T-Mobile’s alternative request for an administrative stay until the 9th Circuit decides the stay issue. “The court denies the motion for the reasons it denied a preliminary injunction,” the judge wrote in case 3:23-cv-00483. The CPUC’s rule is different but not inconsistent with FCC rules, she said. “The plaintiffs did not show a likelihood of success on the merits or serious questions going to the merits, and the balance of equities and the public interest in any event did not tip in their favor.” T-Mobile, late Monday, filed an emergency motion for stay or injunction pending appeal at the 9th Circuit. Since the CPUC order took effect April 1, appellants “are already suffering ongoing, irreparable harms” and request an immediate administrative stay while the court decides Monday’s motion, upon which it wants a ruling by May 1, the carrier said. Without relief, appellants will suffer “financial losses … of nearly $11 million per month, loss of business and customer goodwill, and reputational harm.”