President Donald Trump’s executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership disappointed the Information Technology Industry Council, but ITI said it’s ready to work with the administration on trade agreements that better reflect today’s technology. “There is no prospect for job creation and economic growth for the United States without an active trade agenda,” ITI President Dean Garfield said in a Monday news release. “We can’t ignore the fact that many trade agreements were struck in an era that predates the internet and the global economy which depends on data flowing freely across borders for people and businesses to sell goods and services anywhere in the world. We can -- and should -- improve trade agreements to reflect the critical role digital trade plays in growing our economy and to help tech goods and services compete more fairly overseas.” The Progressive Policy Institute "strongly" disagrees with Trump that it's "good news" to withdraw from TPP, PPI said. "The President’s hasty action on the TPP is bad news for American businesses and workers, for the American economy, and for America’s global influence.”

Outgoing U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman asked the International Trade Commission to do investigations of business-to-business and business-to-consumer digital technologies developed for overseas sale, including the IoT, cloud and software, in a letter to the ITC released Tuesday. He asked the ITC to review: the broad landscape and recent developments of B2B digital technology principally used by the private sector; foreign market policies that affect U.S. firms’ overseas supplies of B2B digital products and services; and foreign measures that affect international inventories of U.S. firms’ business-to-consumer digital products and services. The investigations would help the Office of USTR evaluate ways companies and workers use the internet and related data networks to ship innovative products and services overseas, and will help the agency assess the impact of trade barriers on manufactured goods trade powered by data networks and digitally enabled services, Froman said. He asked the ITC to complete the first report by Aug. 30, the second report by Oct. 29, 2018, and the third report by March 30, 2019. USTR plans to make the first report public and Froman asked that it not contain confidential business or national security classified information, and asked the ITC to make portions of the second and third reports confidential for 10 years, where warranted.

U.S. regulatory changes including a license exemption to encourage U.S. exports that support the Cuban people got U.S. business interest but few commercial deals and little bilateral economic engagement, GAO reported. The State Department and other agencies engaged Cuban officials, hosted events alongside Cuban entrepreneurs and promoted business training opportunities, but the report issued Tuesday found U.S. agencies haven’t collected and documented key information on the Cuban economy, regulatory impacts and “agency activities” in adherence with federal standards for internal control.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, intended to increase trans-Atlantic exports and investments, has made "considerable progress" since EU and U.S. negotiations began in 2013, but challenges remain around data flows and privacy, said a Tuesday joint report from both sides. The report listed several differences, including "how to structure commitments on data flows that will reinforce the essential electronic commerce and digital infrastructure of our economic relationship while respecting legitimate concerns about protecting privacy." The US and EU said "significant work" is needed to resolve the issue. They also said negotiators are discussing possible ways to "reduce unnecessary regulatory differences" in several sectors, including information and communications technology.

The FCC issued its 2016 universal service monitoring report Friday, providing updated information on USF telecom subsidy programs and their impact. Retail telecom revenue subject to assessments for industry USF contributions continued to drop, totaling $30.6 billion in the first half of 2016, after being $63.9 billion in all of 2015, $66.9 billion in 2014 and $68.4 billion in 2013, while USF disbursements have fluctuated, totaling $8.4 billion in 2015, after being $7.9 billion in 2014, $8.3 billion in 2013 and $8.7 billion in 2012, said the lengthy report in docket 10-90. It was released by the Wireline Bureau and is the work of staff members of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service.

The FCC International Bureau approved two trans-Pacific undersea cable systems connecting the U.S. and Asian nations. Applications for submarine cable landing licenses were granted to the fiber systems in two bureau public notices (here, here) listed Friday in the agency's electronic documents management system. Both applications were coordinated with the State Department and other executive branch agencies, said the PNs. They said the New Cross-Pacific (NCP) system will connect the continental U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the Southeast Asia-US (SEA-US) system will connect the continental U.S., Indonesia, Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. NCP received some letters of support and SEA-US was unopposed, the PNs said. "As the infrastructure of the Internet, these systems will provide critical connectivity between the United States and the Asia-Pacific region," said an email from attorney Kent Bressie of Harris Wiltshire, which worked on the applications. He said Harris Wiltshire jointly represented (1) Microsoft, China Mobile International, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom and KT Corp. on NCP, and (2) Globe Telecom (Philippines), GTA (Guam), GTI Corp. (U.S.), Hawaiian Telcom, RAM Telecom International (U.S.), Telin (Indonesia) and Telkom USA on SEA-US.

Switzerland and the U.S. agreed on a new framework for transferring personal data of Swiss citizens to American companies similar to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield that came into force in August (see 1608010017), said Switzerland in a Wednesday news release. The new framework replaces an older arrangement between the two countries. "The Swiss-US Privacy Shield is needed for the secure, efficient and rapid transfer of data," said the release. "The USA does not have legislation on data protection that guarantees an adequate level of protection in terms of Swiss law." Improvements include: a "stricter application of data protection principles" by participating companies; oversight of the arrangement by U.S. authorities; and closer cooperation between the Department of Commerce and Switzerland's Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. "An arbitration body is being introduced to deal with claims that remain unresolved through other available remedies. Lastly, people living in Switzerland will be able to address enquiries relating to the processing of their data by US intelligence services to an ombudsperson in the US State Department," the release said. The government said U.S. companies will get certification under the new arrangement. Commerce didn't comment Wednesday.

GTT Communications completed its acquisition of Hibernia Networks, the companies said in news releases Monday (here and here). The acquisition gives GTT control of Hibernia's five undersea cables, eight cable landing stations, global points of presence, optical and low-latency transport, video and content delivery network services, and "key relationships with marquee clients" in the "financial services, media and entertainment, and web-centric and service provider segments," GTT said. The announcements came after the FCC Wireline Bureau recently cleared GTT to take control of Hibernia's communications licenses, subject to certain assurances sought by the Department of Homeland Security and other executive branch departments regarding the latter's Atlantic cable system and Project Express system (see 1701090042). A GTT spokeswoman said the FCC also approved the transfer of Hibernia's international services through action in the International Bureau's filing system. "That approval should be referenced next public notice, which is released by the International Bureau every two weeks," she emailed Tuesday. GTT calls itself "the leading global cloud networking provider to multinational clients" while Hibernia says it's "a leading provider" of global telecom services.

The Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee plans to meet Jan. 25, said a notice to be published in Wednesday's Federal Register. ISTAC advises the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Export Administration on technical questions affecting export controls for information systems equipment and technology. The meeting is at 9 a.m. in the Hoover Building, Room 3884, 14th Street, between Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues NW.

A Macau man arrested Christmas Day in Hong Kong and awaiting extradition to the U.S. and two other defendants face computer intrusion, insider trading and wire fraud charges for allegedly stealing proprietary information hacked from networks and servers of several "prominent" New York City law firms, said DOJ in a Tuesday news release. Justice unsealed a 13-count superseding indictment against Iat Hong, Bo Zheng and Chin Hung, who allegedly targeted at least seven unidentified law firms and other organizations from April 2014 through late 2015, the release said. DOJ said the defendants targeted email accounts at the firms, which worked on high-profile merger-and-acquisition transactions, and then, based on inside information, bought stock in certain companies, "which were expected to, and typically did, increase in value once the transactions were announced." Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the defendants made more than $4 million in illegal profits. "This case of cyber meets securities fraud should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world: you are and will be targets of cyber hacking, because you have information valuable to would-be criminals,” he said. Hong, 25, was arrested Sunday and is going through extradition proceedings, but DOJ didn't provide the status of 50-year-old Hung, a Macau resident, and Zheng, a 30-year-old resident of China.