Preliminary findings that European telcos are blocking and throttling Internet access show the urgent need for EU net neutrality legislation, citizens’ advocacy group La Quadrature du Net said Monday. It responded to a March 6 report by the Body of European Regulators in Electronic Communications that said fixed and mobile operators are using a wide range of Internet traffic management practices and an equally broad variety of implementation methods and policy justifications for them. BEREC is compiling data for the European Commission on the extent to which net neutrality exists in Europe. The most frequently reported traffic management activities were blocking and/or throttling of peer-to-peer traffic on fixed and mobile networks, and blocking of VoIP traffic, mostly on mobile networks, it said. When blocking or throttling exists, it’s usually done via deep-packet inspection, it said. Around a quarter of the 400 operators who responded to BEREC justify their practices based on “what could be described as ’security and integrity’ concerns” such as fighting spam, though some of those measures are best described as congestion-management techniques, it said. Regarding congestion management, some providers use “application-agnostic” approaches such as active buffering, while others use “application specific” techniques to slow specific traffic such as video streaming, it said. Around one third of the fixed operators manage their networks in order to offer specialized services such as telephony or TV along with a public and best-efforts Internet access service, it said. This is the first time European regulators have tried to identify emerging trends in traffic management, it said. It’s now validating and categorizing the data and plans to publish its findings in Q2, BEREC said. The overview will feed into other BEREC work on net neutrality, it said. The widespread practices prove that Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ “laissez faire” stance on net neutrality is allowing operators to violate users’ freedoms, La Quadrature said.
The Government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices for March 10-12, 2012 (note that some may also be given separate headlines)
The International Trade Administration is publishing notices in the March 12, 2012 Federal Register on the following AD/CV proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, the scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on floor-standing, metal-top ironing tables and certain parts thereof from China (A-570-888) which sets an AD cash deposit rate for one exporter. This rate, which is effective March 12, 2012, is expected to be implemented by U.S. Customs and Border Protection soon.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Korea (A-580-816) which sets AD cash deposit rates for eight manufacturer/exporters, and revokes the order with respect to Pohang Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. and Pohang Coated Steel Co., Ltd.1 These rates, which are effective March 12, 2012, are expected to be implemented by U.S. Customs and Border Protection soon.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain new pneumatic off-the-road tires from China (A-570-912) which sets an AD cash deposit rate for one exporter. This rate, which is effective March 12, 2012, is expected to be implemented by U.S. Customs and Border Protection soon.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet, and strip from China (A-570-924) which sets AD cash deposit rates for four exporters and continues the China-wide cash deposit rate from the last review. These rates, which are effective March 12, 2012, are expected to be implemented by U.S. Customs and Border Protection soon.
The International Trade Administration is publishing notices in the March 9, 2012 Federal Register on the following AD/CV proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, the scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The International Trade Administration has issued the preliminary results of its administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam (A-552-802) for 34 companies and the Vietnam-wide entity (unchanged since last review). These preliminary results are not in effect. The ITA may modify them in the final results of this review and change the estimated AD cash deposit rate for these companies.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of March 8, 2012 lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows: