TIA Warns Tariffs Would Hurt US in 5G ‘Contest’ Against China

in docket USTR-2018-0026. Swanson is scheduled to testify Aug. 21, day two of four days of Office of U.S. Trade Representative hearings. Requests to testify were due Monday under the deadline USTR Robert Lighthizer extended when announcing Aug. 1 he will “consider,” under President Donald Trump’s direction, raising the third tranche of proposed duties to 25 percent from 10 percent (see 1808010073). The “network-based technologies” in which U.S. companies lead the world “depend on underlying hardware,” said Swanson. “Taxing that hardware,” as tariffs on network servers, gateways and modems would do, will raise costs for consumers, she writes: That "stands to discourage U.S. adoption of advanced technologies in a period of growing global competition.” Duties "will hit so many of the telecom products essential to the operation of the internet,” Swanson says. More than 10 million Americans use the computer networking products Zyxel Communications sources from China under certain tariffs hearings for home internet access and for “network computers in the workplace,” commented the company. Its largest customers include CenturyLink, Cincinnati Bell and Hawaiian Telecom, it said. Zyxel’s router products “are used to proliferate broadband throughout the U.S.,” it said. With 34 million Americans lacking "an affordable and reliable broadband connection,” government levies would run counter to DCC and other broadband initiatives, the company said.