The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s (USCC) annual report to Congress, to be released Nov. 14, will include a partial focus on China’s high-tech development activities, including its progress on “Next Generation Connectivity,” USCC says for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The event is 10 a.m. in 902 Hart. Concerns about China’s role in 5G include in a leaked National Security Council draft memo that proposed building a government-owned national 5G network (see 1801290034). USCC Vice Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew said in March she believes China is intent on leading the world on 5G and won't play fair in challenging the U.S. for such dominance (see 1803200036).

Canada should reconsider letting Huawei participate in developing the country's 5G infrastructure, said Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. They were among senators who unsuccessfully pushed to restore a Commerce Department ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to Chinese equipment manufacturer ZTE (see 1808010068). September testimony by Canadian Center for Cyber Security Head-Designee Scott Jones to a parliamentary committee said that country's government has strong cybersecurity protections. Canada is reluctant to outright ban any telecom equipment provider in case that leaves it vulnerable if any other vendors' equipment is attacked, Scott testified. Huawei is barred from Canadian government contracts and from providing equipment to Canada's core telecom infrastructure. Still, "we have serious concerns that such safeguards are inadequate,” Rubio and Warner wrote Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “We are concerned about the impact that any decision to include Huawei in Canada’s 5G networks will have on both Canadian national security and 'Five Eyes' joint intelligence cooperation among the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.” The “strong alignment between the United States and Canada in spectrum management has meant that American and Canadian carriers in many cases share complementary spectrum holdings,” they noted. Trudeau's office didn't comment.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., warned against Chinese back doors allowing a foothold for commercial espionage and destructive cyberthreats, responding to a recent report of Chinese spies targeting U.S. companies (see 1810090029). The lawmakers Tuesday prodded Super Micro Computer, which is on the list of alleged targets that also include Apple and Amazon. The companies denied the validity of Bloomberg Businessweek's report, with Supermicro “strongly” refuting claims that “servers it sold to customers contained malicious microchips in the motherboards of those systems.” The Department of Homeland Security said it had “no reason to doubt the statements from the companies named in the story.”

Google Tuesday appealed a $5 billion fine from EU antitrust enforcers (see 1807180003) who alleged the company abused dominance of its Android operating system, a company spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. Google in July announced its intent to appeal.

ICANN continues to struggle with who can access domain name registration data under the EU general data protection regulation, a Monday webinar heard. The law is specific about the role of data controllers, and ICANN is trying to determine if creating a unified model for access to nonpublic Whois data complies, said CEO Goran Marby. It's up to the community to decide whether it supports such unified access, he said. Legal and technical approaches are under consideration, said General Counsel John Jeffrey, including the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP), to enable users to access current domain registration data that could eventually replace the Whois database. Third parties seeking access to nonpublic data would submit a request to ICANN, which would approve it and pass it along to the data controllers (registries and registrars) or deny it, he said. Comments are due Oct. 13. There's also an expedited policy development process (ePDP) on ICANN's temporary specification for generic top-level domain registration data, said David Olive, senior vice president-policy development support. EPDP is expected to deliver a draft initial report by the Oct. 20-25 ICANN meeting in Barcelona, followed by publication of an initial report for comment shortly thereafter, he said. Marby said GDPR is fairly specific about the individual role of data controllers, and the only way to change the situation would be to lower the risk of liability for registries and registrars. He stressed that none of the proposed solutions will happen if contracted parties don't feel their GDPR risks are diminished. The probability of having a technical solution such as RDAP is likely low but ICANN must ask, he said.

Past administrations of "both parties" gave "some lip service" to curbing China's unfair trade practices "but never followed through," National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said during a Q&A at the Economic Club of Washington Thursday. President Donald Trump "is following through" with the three rounds of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs he imposed over the summer, Kudlow said. He acknowledged he's "more of a doctrinaire free trader" than his boss, and that he opposed the administration's Section 232 tariffs on steel imports before joining the White House from CNBC. But there's "a lot of unfair trading practices" worldwide, and "the biggest culprit is China, and that can't be left alone," said Kudlow. "China has played fast and loose with the rules," he said. "The World Trade Organization needs reforms to enforce those rules. China's taken advantage. They're not a third-world country anymore. Why should we have to suffer?" Trump wants "a level playing field" with China, said Kudlow. "He wants reciprocity. Ultimately, he wants zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, zero subsidies." Kudlow acknowledged tariffs "may be painful in some cases," but Trump is "a disrupter." Kudlow is "quite patient" with the policy, and confident a deal with China "can be negotiated" as a result, he said. It has been only "four or five months" since Trump first imposed tariffs, Kudlow said: "Let him do his work."

The Internet Association has joined tech groups hailing the trilateral trade agreement the Trump administration reached last weekend with Canada and Mexico (see 1810020035 or 1810020001) but is concerned the deal’s copyright provisions fall short, said CEO Michael Beckerman Wednesday. The digital-trade provisions “will promote and protect U.S. digital exports and support millions of American jobs,” said Beckerman. Digital trade benefits “businesses of all sizes in every industry, and this agreement reflects key parts of U.S. law that have created a $160 billion American digital trade surplus,” he said. “In the copyright area, however, the agreement includes only a portion of the core U.S. legal framework.” IA hopes the administration will include "key provisions in U.S. law like fair use-style rights."

CTA joined tech groups hailing the trilateral trade agreement the U.S., Canada and Mexico reached over the weekend (see 1810010018), as it modernizes the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Software and Information Industry Association supported the agreement, but Public Knowledge criticized the intellectual property “chapter” as reflecting “the priorities of major corporate rightsholders.” The “new NAFTA,” as CTA President Gary Shapiro called the deal Tuesday, “supports America's innovation by reducing barriers to digital trade,” and prevents “discrimination” against U.S. “payment platforms,” he said. CTA wants the Trump administration to “add guidelines on a balanced approach to copyright” to the agreement so Congress “may vote quickly on this pro-tech trade deal,” he said. The agreement bars duties and “other discriminatory measures” on products distributed electronically, and “ensures cross-border data transfer,” CTA noted. SIIA is “particularly pleased” with the agreement’s “cross-border data flow obligations” and protections for “source code/algorithms,” said Vice President-Public Policy Mark MacCarthy Monday. PK urged Congress to revise the Trade Promotion Authority “to guarantee that future trade negotiations are conducted in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, and with a minimum of democratic transparency.” It labeled the agreement a “missed opportunity to truly adapt NAFTA to the 21st century.”

European privacy officials Sunday pressed Facebook for details about the impact on EU citizens from the latest breach (see 1809280036). The Data Protection Commission Ireland tweeted Sunday it was waiting for details from Facebook about affected EU users “so that we can properly assess the nature of the breach and risk to users.” EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova urged the platform to “fully cooperate” with the Irish regulator, saying “we need to know if EU users were affected and what had happened to their data.” Data Protection Commission Ireland said Monday that Facebook notified officials that EU users represented less than 10 percent of the 50 million reportedly affected. EU general data protection regulation violators face up to $20 million per infraction, or 4 percent of global revenue, whichever is more. Facebook initially said as many as 50 million users were affected, and reset access information for another 40 million as a precaution. The company didn’t comment on the European response.

EU and U.S. officials' discussion Thursday on competition policy issues and cross-border cooperation will contribute to the FTC’s competition policy review (see 1809210056), Chairman Joe Simons said after the meeting. “High-level engagement with our European colleagues enables us to deepen mutual understanding of our enforcement policies, facilitating greater convergence and efficiency in the review of trans-Atlantic transactions and conduct.” Simons met European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager and Assistant U.S. Attorney General Makan Delrahim in Washington, where they discussed digital markets, multilateral framework, data protection, vertical mergers, unilateral conduct and merger cooperation. Such work is "essential to ensuring competitive markets in the increasingly interconnected global economy,” Delrahim said.