The International Trade Administration has initiated an antidumping duty changed circumstances review of ball bearings and parts thereof from Germany (A-428-801).
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review of certain lined paper products from India (A-533-843) for the period September 1, 2008, through August 31, 2009.
Dish Network still won’t get a preliminary injunction against the FCC that would put off a requirement that the DBS company carry non-commercial TV stations on an accelerated schedule under provisions of last year’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Thursday against Dish in its challenge to a decision by the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, refusing to grant Dish the preliminary injunction. A company representative had no comment because it was still reviewing the order. “Because we agree with the district court that DISH failed to demonstrate it is likely to succeed on the merits, we affirm the denial of injunctive relief,” wrote 9th Circuit Judge Richard Tallman for himself and colleagues Clifford Wallace and Barry Silverman -- http://xrl.us/bijvmd. The provision of STELA that Dish sued the commission over was that it carry more public TV stations as one condition of being able to import faraway signals from commercial network affiliates to areas deemed not served by a sister station.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of three antidumping duty new shipper reviews of wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-570-890) for the review period of January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.
The European Commission’s apparent decision to accept non-binding industry ecodesign targets for set-top boxes is worrying, said the European Consumers’ Organization (BEUC) and European Consumer Voice in Standardization (ANEC). In a Feb. 11 letter to the chairman of the steering committee for a voluntary agreement on complex set-top boxes under the ecodesign directive, EC Energy Director-General Philip Lowe noted that the industry self-regulatory plan is the first under the law and will set a template and benchmark for future proposals. An EC impact assessment showed that a voluntary agreement “is a viable alternative to regulation” in the short- and mid-term, he wrote. But the study also found that, for industry to realize the full energy-saving potential, it must agree on “more ambitious future targets,” he said. The Energy Directorate General is now “in a position to propose to the Commission a decision on the formal endorsement” of the voluntary agreement, he said. An estimated 80 percent of the environmental impacts of products are determined during their design phase, BEUC and ANEC said. The ecodesign directive aims to improve the environmental performance of energy-related products by integrating environmental criteria at an early design stage, they said. TV set-top boxes are among the worst offenders for energy consumption and their performance should be regulated, they said. If the EC approves the industry agreement it will be the first time that ecodesign requirements aren’t legislated and it could set a precedent for self-regulation, they said. Even more alarming is the fact that the EC accepts the pact while acknowledging its lack of energy-saving ambition, the consumer groups said. BEUC Director General Monique Goyens said she’s skeptical that green targets provided unilaterally by manufacturers will achieve the same results as binding legislation. The auto industry didn’t deliver on promises to reduce CO2 emissions and preliminary talks among TV decoder makers already “show a lamentable lack of ambition as they are considering excluding even the possibility for consumers to switch off these devices,” she said. ANEC’s concerned that not all set-top boxes will be ecodesigned and that the environmental requirements won’t be enforced by public authorities, Secretary-General Stephen Russell added.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen plans more discussions with Facebook about its response to his request for information on how the company handles hacked accounts, his spokeswoman said. Jepsen requested the information this month after a Connecticut state representative claimed that her account was hacked in an effort to solicit money (WID Feb 16 p13). The website provided a preliminary response Tuesday, “which includes information that Facebook has asked us to keep confidential” because it references individual Facebook accounts, the spokeswoman said. It is the company’s policy “to let the requester decide whether the document is made public or kept private,” a Facebook spokesman said. At this time, Jepsen is not making the letter public, the spokeswoman said.
During a recent interview with Broker Power, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials provided an update on ACE, including Post Summary Correction functionality, the deployment of M1, the 24 high priority ACE entry summary edits, cargo release, the document imaging system, etc.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review of polyethylene terephthalate film (PET film) from Taiwan (A-583-837) for the period July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review of light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from Mexico for the period of January 30, 2008 through July 31, 2009 (A-201-836).
The Network Advertising Initiative wants better notice and choice mechanisms for online behavioral advertising, it said in comments on the FTC privacy report. The framework’s reasonably-linked approach doesn’t address factors like “the intent of the collecting party” or “the existence of contractual mechanisms that protect against linkage,” NAI said. The report’s reasonably-linked standard could bring about unnecessary disclosure that “highlights the potential utility that self-regulatory mechanisms could play in fostering consumer awareness of data collection.” The report’s data retention principle reflects how the self-regulatory approach “can further the goal of improved substantive privacy protections,” NAI said. “Self-regulatory frameworks can not only address how retention information can be made more transparent to consumers, but also establish best practices that normalize retention periods for particular classes of data.” The final FTC report should include “an identification and brief discussion of existing laws and regulations that apply to certain commercial business sectors,” like the healthcare industry, said America’s Health Insurance Plans. The healthcare sector is governed by a complex framework of statutory and legal requirements, AHIP said. The existing requirements “are very similar to the elements advanced in the report.” “Including financial services in the scope of the preliminary report may not only call into question the paper’s role to the extent it is inconsistent with the current governing regulatory requirements, but it may be disruptive to financial institutions’ privacy framework and have unintended consequences,” the American Insurance Association said.