The Americans for Free Trade coalition wants the Trump administration to defer due dates for all federal duties and import fees payable through June, it wrote the White House and members of Congress Tuesday. Doing so would “immediately free up billions of dollars of working capital for American companies,” it said. “This cash is even more important for companies that have had to close their doors because of stay-at-home orders, leaving them with little to no revenue to make ends meet. Companies facing urgent liquidity issues need their duty payments deferred in order to succeed when the economy reopens.” More than 470 companies signed the letter, including Audio Control, Fossil, GameStop, JL Audio, Jasco Products and Voxx. CTA was among seven tech groups also signing, including ACT|The App Association and CompTIA. The White House didn’t comment.

Comments are due May 8 at the International Trade Commission on Sharp’s April 21 complaint (login required) alleging Vizio and its suppliers, Xianyang CaiHong Optoelectronics Technology and TPV, violate five Sharp LCD patents, says Tuesday’s Federal Register, docket 337-3451. Sharp seeks limited exclusion and cease and desist orders banning imports of the allegedly infringing products. None of the proposed respondents commented Monday.

Duplicates of customs broker records may be stored on servers outside the U.S. as long as the originals are stored on U.S. servers, Customs and Border Protection said. The March 10 ruling was disclosed by a stakeholder last week and confirmed to us by the recipient. The ruling requested by Craig Seelig at WiseTech Global examined WiseTech's use of a foreign server in Australia as a secondary site. The primary site would be in the U.S. CBP requires that for broker records stored on a server, the server must be located in the customs territory of the U.S., the agency replied. “This is where CBP has jurisdiction to issue a summons and inspect records.” There’s “no rule applicable to duplicate records,” the agency said. “It seems logical then that once the recordkeeping regulations are met, including 19 C.F.R. § 111.23(a), requiring that records be retained at any location within the customs territory of the United States, that duplicates of these records may be maintained outside the territory of the United States." Grunfeld Desiderio lawyer Alan Klestadt, who told a webinar of the ruling, said that, with a coming update to customs broker regulations, more cloud-based recordkeeping could come to be OK’d.

The Commerce Department’s unclear rollout of an export control on geospatial imagery software is causing industry confusion and could lead to broad, unintended impacts on exports of certain artificial intelligence, industry representatives said in interviews last week. “For these companies who now have to supply software without AI, it's like supplying a human body without blood,” said Sanjay Kumar, CEO of the World Geospatial Industry Council. “It will make it impossible for some companies to continue doing business how they were before.” The interim final rule released in January was criticized by industry for unclear definitions that made it difficult for some in the AI field to determine whether the rule applies to them. “That lack of definitions is creating, at best, confusion,” said Jennifer O’Bryan, chair of Commerce’s Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee. Some terms in the rule, such as deep convolutional neural networks, rotational normalization and rotational patterns, “desperately need some sort of definition to make sure that they don't intrude on certain purely commercial technology spaces that use similar AI software,” said O’Bryan, government affairs director for SPIE, an international society for optics and photonics. Stakeholders wish Commerce had issued the rule for public comment before it took effect, saying industry expertise is critical for export controls that involve complex technologies. “To put out an interim rule or a draft rule and have it go into effect immediately before there's any period of public comment just seems incongruous with the principles that we grow up with in this democracy,” said Barbara Ryan, World Geospatial Industry Council policy adviser. The department's Bureau of Industry and Security declined comment.

Comments are due April 30 on an import ban Universal Electronics seeks on Funai, Hisense, Roku and TCL devices that allegedly infringe its patents, said Wednesday’s Federal Register. Streaming players, TVs, set-top boxes and remote controllers imported by the four companies and their affiliates infringe its patented QuickSet technology, which automates the configuration and control of remote controls and home entertainment devices by capturing control codes from remote controls or written specifications, it told the International Trade Commission April 16. The four companies didn’t comment.

The COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact will send global IT spending in 2020 to a 2.7% decline, reported IDC Tuesday. Hospitality and “tourism-heavy” industries likely will be the most negatively affected, with IT spending declining by 5% or more, said IDC. More "recession resistant" industries like government will fare better, increasing slightly in 2020, it said. IT spending in healthcare and telecom is “also forecast to grow slightly” as those segments “respond to new demands presented by the pandemic,” it said.

The Trump administration’s 90-day “limited duty deferral” for importers is “welcome news to retailers,” said National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay Monday. Many importers are getting “diminished or no revenue” during the pandemic “while still incurring costs, including the duties, taxes, and fees associated with imported merchandise for their clients and supply chains,” said Customs and Border Protection Sunday. “Aggravating matters, many major retail chains” are closing their stores voluntarily or to comply with mandated shutdowns, it said. The 90-day deferral “provides some retailers with additional liquidity and better cash flow, giving hope for business continuity and a faster recovery once the pandemic has passed,” he said. The deferral doesn’t apply to the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, which remain in effect. “We encourage the administration to broaden these deferrals for additional relief,” said Shay. The Information Technology Industry Council welcomes the administration's "action to alleviate tariff burdens," said CEO Jason Oxman Monday. "We urge more expansive action for the more than $370 billion of goods subject to Section 301 tariffs," he said: "Deferring payment on these tariffs would provide much-needed flexibility and facilitate the delivery of assets to U.S. healthcare providers, companies, and consumers” amid COVID-19.

COVID-19-induced delays in “accounting closing procedures” forced Sony to postpone release of its year-end financial results to May 13 from April 30, said the company Friday. Sony floated that possibility March 27 when it said the pandemic likely would negate the 5% upward revision in its February profit forecast (see 2003270028).

U.S. agencies including the State and Treasury departments issued guidance Wednesday on cyberthreats posed by North Korea, including sanctions in place to counter those threats. The guidance includes information on the types of North Korean actions that constitute “sanctionable conduct,” entities and people currently designated for cyber activity and how Treasury investigates possible cyber-related sanctionable conduct.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and five other Senate Republicans urged the departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy and State Tuesday to “issue regulations as soon as possible confirming that U.S. participation in 5G standards-setting is not restricted by export control regulations” to ensure U.S. technology “continues to form the core of 5G foundational technology.” U.S. tech leaders “have been constrained from full participation in 5G standards-setting bodies” since Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security’s addition of Chinese equipment maker Huawei to its entity list (see 1906190054), the senators wrote Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Commerce Secretary of Wilbur Ross. “We are deeply concerned about the risks to the U.S. global leadership position” in 5G “as a result of this reduced participation, and the economic and national security implications of any diminished U.S. role in 5G.” When U.S. export controls “restrict U.S. companies from participating in standards-setting bodies,” Huawei “is well positioned to fill any gaps,” the senators said. The other GOP senators signing the letter were: John Cornyn of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Marco Rubio of Florida and Todd Young of Indiana.