Trade and business relations between the European Union and China will likely grow more challenging in the wake of the EU’s decision to pause ratification of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (see 2105240023), a European policy expert said. Even so, China will likely push the EU to move forward on the deal, another expert said, as it doesn’t want a series of escalating sanctions by the two sides to continue.
Stimulus spending, the sustained role of technology and the ongoing shift to hybrid work models caused unexpected gains in Best Buy’s comparable sales for fiscal Q1 ended May 2, said CEO Corie Barry on a Thursday earnings call. Comparable sales grew 37% from a year earlier, led by home theater, computing and appliances.
ATSC paused its initiative with Indian authorities to help boost deployment there of ATSC 3.0 broadcast services to mobile devices (see 2103290016) at the outbreak of that country’s COVID-19 crisis, President Madeleine Noland told us. “When it’s safe to do so, we’ll pick up where we left off,” she said. The situation on the ground in India is “heartbreaking,” said Noland Monday. “All we can do is patiently stand aside, recognizing that other things are much, much, much more important in that country right now than this project. We’re looking forward to the day when things are better and different.” The project’s “apparatus” is firmly “in place, ready to be fired up again when it becomes feasible and appropriate” to do so, she said. ATSC’s NAB Show 2021 “main” messaging in October (see report, May 25 issue) will be that NextGenTV “has reached critical mass in terms of commercial deployment,” said Noland. “This thing is for real.” She sees 3.0 “as a platform,” and “it’s going to evolve as the marketplace evolves.” Standards organizations like ATSC need to “stay ahead of the curve, and that’s what we’re doing,” she said.
ATSC paused its initiative with Indian authorities to help boost deployment there of ATSC 3.0 broadcast services to mobile devices (see 2103290016) at the outbreak of that country’s COVID-19 crisis, President Madeleine Noland told us. “When it’s safe to do so, we’ll pick up where we left off,” she said. The situation on the ground in India is “heartbreaking,” said Noland Monday. “All we can do is patiently stand aside, recognizing that other things are much, much, much more important in that country right now than this project. We’re looking forward to the day when things are better and different.” The project’s “apparatus” is firmly “in place, ready to be fired up again when it becomes feasible and appropriate” to do so, she said. ATSC’s NAB Show 2021 “main” messaging in October (see report, May 25 issue) will be that NextGenTV “has reached critical mass in terms of commercial deployment,” said Noland. “This thing is for real.” She sees 3.0 “as a platform,” and “it’s going to evolve as the marketplace evolves.” Standards organizations like ATSC need to “stay ahead of the curve, and that’s what we’re doing,” she said.
The European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution May 20 to halt ratification of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment between the European Union and China. The resolution said CAI ratification discussions have “justifiably been frozen” due to Chinese sanctions in place on the EU in response to Europe's own sanctions on China over its treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang province. The European Parliament wants the sanctions lifted on all 10 European individuals before ratification can continue. The report also mentioned the deteriorating human rights situation in Hong Kong as a cause for European concern with regard to continued relations with China.
Citing the impact of COVID-19 on incarcerated people and their families, FCC commissioners unanimously approved an order and Further NPRM Thursday to cut interstate rates for inmate calling services (see 2105120031). It’s “not the last action we will take because there is more that needs to be done,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel during Thursday’s meeting.
Steel exporter SeAH Steel Corporation along with consolidated plaintiff Husteel Co., Nexteel Co., AJU Besteel and Iljin Steel Corporation, argued against a government motion in the Court of International Trade to stay proceedings in an antidumping duty case until the Federal Circuit rules on a similar question in a separate case. In a May 17 joint opposition brief, the plaintiffs said that the Department of Justice failed to make a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits of the Federal Circuit case, doesn't argue that it would be "irreparably injured" without a stay, and doesn't consider that there is a fair chance the plaintiffs would be injured by the stay.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai generally avoided being pinned down on timing as she was asked about rekindling trade negotiations with the United Kingdom and Kenya, the pause on tariffs on European imports, and a solution for steel overcapacity that could make way for the lifting of Section 232 tariffs.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai generally avoided being pinned down on timing as she was asked about rekindling trade negotiations with the United Kingdom and Kenya, the pause on tariffs on European imports, and a solution for steel overcapacity that could make way for the lifting of Section 232 tariffs.
The European Commission halted efforts to ratify a massive investment deal with China following back-and-forth sanctions over China's human rights violations committed against its Uighur Muslim ethnic minority, The Guardian reported May 4. “We now in a sense have suspended … political outreach activities from the European Commission side,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the commission’s executive vice president, said. The deal, called the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, was negotiated in December and secured greater market access for European Union companies in China along with certain questionable concessions on subsidies and labor standards (see 2101250052). “As long as members of the European Parliament are on sanction[s] list,” ratifying the agreement is “impossible,” Michael Reiterer, distinguished professor at Brussels School of Governance, told The Guardian.