The FCC set a pleading cycle on the planned transfer of undersea cable rights and other authorizations from Amper units to Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH). Comments and petitions to deny are due March 1, with replies due March 16 on the proposed transfer of control to ATH of international licenses, wireless licenses, satellite earth station authorizations and a cable landing license held by Amper's AST Telecom (doing business as Bluesky), American Samoa Hawaii Cable (ASHC) and Samoa American Samoa Cable (SASC), said a public notice in docket 16-420 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The parties also request a foreign ownership declaratory ruling "to permit investment of 100 percent in AST by ATH," a public company of the Republic of Fiji. Amper is a Spanish holding company with a 91.8 percent interest in eLandia International, the Miami-based U.S. direct parent of AST and indirect parent of ASHC and SASC. Another eLandia unit has invested in the American Samoa-Hawaii Cable System that AST operates.

The 37-member Alliance for Competitive Taxation supports the House tax reform agenda, it said in a Thursday news release. The group, which includes Dell, Disney, Google and Verizon, offered approval without specifically mentioning some controversial “border adjustability” elements that would subject imports to taxation while exempting U.S. exports. "The ‘Better Way for Tax Reform’ blueprint includes many of the policies that our businesses support, including setting a competitive corporate tax rate at 20 percent, establishing a modern international tax system, promoting investment and job creation in the U.S., and providing a level playing field for U.S. and foreign companies competing to sell their goods and services at home and abroad," the group said. Border adjustability was mentioned in House Speaker Paul Ryan's tax reform agenda last year and continues to be seen as a key element, though no legislation has been introduced. Retailers, which generally depend heavily on imports, are largely opposed to such a provision.

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.”

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.