The global semiconductor shortage “continues to negatively impact U.S. workers and consumers and is a persistent headwind to the U.S. economic outlook,” said the 100-day supply chain review published Tuesday by the White House in answer to President Joe Biden’s call for the report in his Feb. 24 executive order. The Commerce Department’s assessment took center stage in the 250-page report. The Energy, Defense and Health and Human Services departments also weighed in.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross downplayed any disagreement within the Trump administration on how much it wants to restrict Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei via U.S. trade rules. His Thursday exchange with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., came during a Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department’s FY 2021 budget request. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., questioned the agency's broadband coverage data collection.
Weather delays from the rainiest 12 months on record, a shortage of tower crews and, to a slight degree, steel tariffs are making the post-incentive auction repacking tough for some broadcasters. FCC flexibility and increasing use of auxiliary antennas are keeping it largely on track for the moment, said broadcasters, attorneys, manufacturers, tower crews and the FCC. Though at the repack’s start, industry officials had been concerned that snowballing delays would become a big problem by the current phase (phase 3), they now predict big problems in 5 and 6, which have the tightest deadlines.
The Office of the U.S Trade Representative issued its first list of product exclusions from the 25 percent Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, granting full or partial exemptions for nearly two dozen 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings, said a notice posted Friday at the agency’s website. The exclusions apply retroactively to July 6, the date the first tranche of tariffs took effect, and will remain in effect until one year after the USTR’s notice is published in the Federal Register.
White House tariffs on steel are beginning to increase prices for companies involved in the post-incentive auction repacking, but the tariffs aren’t pushing up costs as much as competition for crews and resources is, said antenna and tower industry officials in interviews. “The main thing increasing the costs are the crew prices,” said Electronics Research Inc. Vice President-Marketing Bill Harland. “It’s an impact,” said FDH Infrastructure Business Development Manager Don Doty of the tariffs. “But the repack itself -- the demand -- is raising prices higher.”
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."
CTA views the Trade Security Act introduced last month in the Senate as a "tool" to fight President Donald Trump’s “failing tariff strategy,” said CEO Gary Shapiro Wednesday. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced S-3329 with three co-sponsors to boost congressional oversight of the Trade Expansion Act Section 232 tariff process and require the Defense Department rather than the commerce secretary to justify Section 232 duties on national-security grounds. Congress has “limited tools” to dispute Trump's “unfounded” national-security claims as the basis to levy Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum “that are hurting American business and consumers,” said Shapiro. Portman is “uniquely qualified” as a former U.S. trade representative “to address targeted reforms that set clear guidelines on the president's misuse of his authority pertaining to trade," said Shapiro. Portman was USTR for a year beginning in May 2005 under President George W. Bush.
Vote for a bill from Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., that would amend a 1962 law to constrain President Donald Trump’s ability to impose Trade Expansion Act Section 232 tariffs, more than 60 national business groups and more than 200 local chambers of commerce and similar organizations urged the Senate in a Tuesday letter. Though the president should retain the authority to impose tariffs on national security grounds, “the current circumstances highlight the need for Congress to ensure that the authority will be used, as intended by the Congress, in the overall national interest," it said. Among signers were the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Internet Association and National Retail Federation. S-3013 "is designed to accomplish this limited objective. The President will retain the power to impose tariffs to protect the national security subject only to confirmation by the Congress that the power is being properly used," the letter said. CTA didn’t comment on why it didn’t sign.
The Trump administration’s plan to impose Trade Act Section 301 tariffs of 25 percent on Chinese imports “may have gotten China’s attention," but they’re "unlikely to change China’s conduct -- and will cause significant collateral damage in the process,” the Progressive Policy Institute reported. The duties, though applied to “Chinese-origin” products, “would be paid by Americans and impose serious costs on the U.S. economy,” it said. A “smarter strategy” to “confront China’s mercantilism” would be for the U.S. “to work more closely with its trade partners” to curb the allegedly “abusive” trade behavior, said PPI. “China’s unfair policies and practices seriously threaten innovative businesses in many countries, and they -- and their governments -- can be key allies in pushing back.” It’s difficult to build a coalition against China when the administration “needlessly antagonizes allies,” as it did when it imposed steel and aluminum tariffs against them, it said. The U.S. also needs to “speak with a single voice” in “focused, results-oriented” trade negotiations with China, said the report. The administration “should designate a single, high-level official to negotiate with China about core trade issues related to China’s unfair innovation practices,” it said. “This official should also actively seek cooperation from allies on those issues.”
An amendment that would stop the deal to lift an export ban on ZTE is to be considered by the Senate Monday as part of the defense authorization bill. Since the House didn't include such an amendment in its version, passed in May, conference committee members would have to agree to include it in the final version. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who won't be a conferee, said he doesn't know what position the House negotiators will take. "I'm going to leave it to our conferees," he said at a news conference Thursday. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in response to our question, said it's baffling President Donald Trump sought to intervene in the Commerce Department's enforcement case. Initially, Commerce before Trump weighed in said the company deserved a seven-year export ban because of lies about complying with earlier penalties. "The president is saying we can't act against them because we have to save jobs in China," Pelosi said. "Really? ZTE should not be getting this gift." Wednesday, a White House spokesman defended the revised penalty (see 1806130070), saying it gives the government "complete oversight of their future activity without undue harm to American suppliers and their workers." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called that an attempt to derail the bipartisan agreement to restore the export ban. "Both parties in Congress must be resolute in blocking the president's bad, pro-China ZTE deal," he said. "Congress should have the ability to have leverage in that discussion," Pelosi said: "You can't be frivolous about using the national security waiver" on tariffs. Comparing ZTE to steel and aluminum tariffs, she said that "to say you're instituting a tariff because of national security reasons, and at the same time, you're saying to ZTE, 'It's OK if you're a cybersecurity threat, it's OK if you violated the sanctions' -- how can this make sense?"