Comments are due Sept. 30 to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative suggesting sites and physical markets for the Notorious Markets List for the Special 301 out-of-cycle review, said Monday's Federal Register. Rebuttal comments are due Oct. 15. The USTR is seeking "examples of online and physical markets based outside the United States that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy or trademark counterfeiting," said the notice.

IoT security will exceed $51.42 billion in 2024, with a 22.3 percent compound annual growth rate the next five years, reported BIS Research Friday. It cited “the increasing number of data breaches, growing demand for IoT security regulations and guidelines, and the rising security demand for critical infrastructure.” North America is expected to lead the market in 2019, followed by Europe, and is expected to “maintain its dominance” during the period: “This unprecedented growth in North America is primarily attributed to the efforts made by federal bodies to provide IoT security regulations and guidelines. Moreover, the region is known for being one of the fastest technology adopters with a base to many key players.”

Despite a slowing global economy and the “looming” U.S.-China trade war, information and communications technology will maintain “steady” sales growth over the next five years, said IDC Thursday. It predicts worldwide ICT spending on hardware, software services and telecom will rise at a 3.8 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching $4.8 trillion in 2023. "Confidence indicators are fluctuating on a monthly basis, depending on short-term indicators ranging from speculation over tariffs and trade wars to political wild cards,” said the researcher. “End-user surveys reflect the impact of this uncertainty on business decision-making, but our forecasts remain roughly stable overall for 2019.”

Qualcomm is working with the Department for Information Technologies of Moscow, Russian mobile operators, and equipment and software vendors to support testing and deployment of Europe’s first 5G millimeter wave network in Moscow this fall, it said Wednesday. The project is meant to create 5G-enabled digital services and innovation in the city, including virtual and augmented reality applications. Moscow plans to equip business centers, stadiums, main streets, congress halls, railway stations and airports with “high-capacity ultra-fast, low-latency mobile communications” for new 5G-enabled services for a range of devices from smartphones to fixed wireless access points, said Yulia Klebanova, Qualcomm Europe vice president-business development.

Samsung’s share of the European smartphone market jumped to 41 percent in Q2, with 18.3 million shipments, from the year-ago quarter, as its main rival Huawei “suffered the impact of political restrictions” in the U.S., Canalys reported Monday. Huawei’s shipments fell 16 percent to 8.5 million units, giving it 19 percent share, while Apple shipments dropped 17 percent to 6.4 million iPhones for 14 percent share, it said. Xiaomi grew 48 percent to 4.3 million units, for 10 percent share. Samsung has been “quick to capitalize on Huawei’s US Entity List problems, working behind the scenes to position itself as a stable alternative in conversations with important retailers and operators,” said analyst Ben Stanton: Lack of brand loyalty among low-end and mid-range Android smartphone buyers drove Samsung’s “best performance in years.” Europe, said the analyst, remains “one of the most brand-volatile smartphone markets.”

President Donald Trump appeared to put the kibosh on Apple’s requests for List 3 Section 301 tariff exclusions on Chinese imports of graphics processing modules, power supplies, heat sinks and a dozen other types of components for the Mac Pro desktop due this fall. Tweeted Trump Friday: “Apple will not be given Tariff waiver, or relief, for Mac Pro parts that are made in China. Make them in the USA, no Tariffs!” There are “no other sources” outside China “for this proprietary, Apple-designed component,” said Apple in each of the 15 product exclusion requests it filed July 18, as searchable Thursday on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative public docket. “This product is a component of a consumer electronic device,” said Apple. “It is not strategically important or related to ‘Made in China 2025' or other Chinese industrial programs.” Public responses in support or opposition to the exclusion requests are due Aug. 1, and Apple had few backers among those who weighed in with an opinion through Friday. “USTR should not set a harmful precedent of exempting companies from tariffs that move jobs to an overt adversary of the United States,” commented Gregory Lewandowski on Apple’s request for tariff exclusions on Mac Pro graphics processing modules. “This is absolute garbage,” commented Logan Marotz of I.E. Productions. “We cannot continue to bend to the will of these companies. They knew the possible consequences of their actions by moving their assembly factories over seas. Tough luck, but this is the game they play.” Apple reportedly is shifting Mac Pro assembly to a contract manufacturer near Shanghai; that it's seeking tariff exclusions on imported parts suggests it's still doing final assembly in Texas, as it did with previous generations of Mac Pro desktops. Apple didn’t comment Friday, nor did USTR on Trump's tweet. Trump also targeted French President Emmanuel Macron Friday and France's initiation of a digital service tax, on which USTR launched a Section 301 investigation July 10. "France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies," tweeted Trump. "If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA. We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly. I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!"

Higher Q1 consumer smart TV adoption was the “unintended consequence of the U.S.-China trade dispute,” with the Roku TV operating system the winner, reported IHS Markit Thursday. Fears of higher tariffs on Chinese TV imports "spurred TCL and other TV brands reliant on Chinese manufacturing to increase shipments to North America in early 2019,” said IHS. “These companies hoped to build safety stocks and generate as much sales volume as possible before pricing was impacted by the tariffs. This strategy boosted sales of Chinese-made smart TVs.” They “make extensive use of the Roku OS, in contrast to more established brand names, which often employ their own operating systems,” said IHS. “The boom in Chinese TV sales put Roku at the top of the North American market for the first time since" Q3 2017. IHS estimates the Roku OS had 37 percent share of the U.S. smart TV market Q1, up from 23 percent in Q4.

Japan chose a “dangerous and destructive mode of retaliation” in its trade dispute with South Korea, “one that is likely to greatly disrupt global electronic supply chains and bolster China’s push for dominance of 5G wireless," blogged American Enterprise Institute trade scholar Claude Barfield. Japan controls about 90 percent of the markets for two of the three chemicals, and 70 percent of the third, necessary to make semiconductors and flexible display panels, said the former consultant to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It’s threatening to remove South Korea from the white list of countries with privileged security status, he said Tuesday. “This would force Korean companies to go through a time-consuming procurement process in the future," causing disruption to the global supply chain that would “ripple outward,” he said. South Korea asked the secretariat of the Wassenaar Arrangement to mediate the dispute with Japan, since both countries signed the 1996 agreement on curbing export of sensitive dual-use goods to rogue states. Japan claims South Korean manufacturers are allowing the chemicals to go to North Korea. "The secretariat responded that it has no mechanism to intervene in bilateral issues that may arise between member states," Korean press reported.

A China-U.S. trade deal would lead to lifting the ban on Huawei, speakers agreed during a Brookings Institution panel. All suggested a U.S.-China deal will eventually get done. The Commerce Department added Huawei to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s entity list in May, and recently showed willingness to loosen restrictions to mitigate impacts on U.S. exporters (see 1907100013). Blacklisting was more political than practical, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Robert Atkinson and American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar Derek Scissors. The Trump administration and Congress cited fears Huawei products can be used as state-monitored surveillance equipment. That was addressed with import restrictions, Atkinson said Thursday. “The Huawei ban had nothing to do -- nor should it have anything to do -- with national security,” he said. “Could we damage Huawei -- their national champion -- as leverage in a trade war? That's what that was about.” Atkinson said U.S. export controls against Huawei are “a total trade tactic” and China is never “going to accept a deal if the Huawei ban is still on.” Adding the company to the entity list was a trade tactic that will be easily undone, said Scissors. “We are much less linked to Huawei than some of the Europeans are and some of our other allies are,” he said. “The president will just say it doesn't matter to us.”

The U.S. and the other G7 nations signed a common understanding on digital economy competition (see here), DOJ said Thursday. It includes an agreement that competitive markets are vital to well-functioning economies, that digital transformation requires competition authorities to have up-to-date tools and resources for enforcement, that governments should assess whether policies or regulations unnecessarily restrict digital market competition, and that there needs to be more international cooperation and convergence in competition law application. There has been concern about data accumulation by platforms being a barrier to competitive entry, but such issues -- while challenging -- "are not beyond the reach of competition law," it said, and the G7 nations will continue to collaborate on such issues. FTC Chairman Joe Simons said the understanding "recognizes the importance for competition agencies to examine enforcement and policy issues raised by evolving business practices and emerging technologies in light of the goals of protecting consumers and promoting competition."