Section 301 investigations of India, Italy and Turkey digital service taxes found each country “discriminates against U.S. companies, is inconsistent with prevailing principles of international taxation” and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Wednesday. “USTR is not taking any specific actions in connection with the findings at this time but will continue to evaluate all available options,” it said. The Indian, Italian and Turkish embassies in Washington didn’t respond to questions Thursday.

President Donald Trump's executive order Tuesday bans transactions with eight popular Chinese payment apps, citing national security concerns. In effect in 45 days, the EO bans transactions with Alipay, QQ Wallet, WeChat Pay, Tencent QQ, CamScanner, SHAREit, VMate and WPS Office. Certain Chinese apps “continue to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” it said. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross supported Trump’s “commitment to protecting the privacy and security of Americans from threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.” A Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson called the EO another example of the U.S. “wantonly bullying foreign companies by abusing state power on the untenable ground of national security.” National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said “China’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy explicitly aims to co-opt or coerce civilian enterprises into assisting the People’s Liberation Army.” The apps’ parent companies didn’t comment Wednesday.

Comments are due Jan. 12 in International Trade Commission docket 337-3518 on public-interest ramifications of the Tariff Act Section 337 import ban that Solas OLED seeks against AMOLED devices and components from BOE, LG, Samsung and Sony for allegedly infringing three display technology patents, said Monday’s Federal Register. Permitting “unlicensed parties” like the proposed respondents to “continue their unfair acts” would devalue the patents and undermine the investments of Solas licensee eMagin to manufacture OLED in the U.S., said Solas’ Dec. 28 complaint (login required). BOE, LG, Samsung and Sony didn’t comment Tuesday.

The New York Stock Exchange has started proceedings to delist shares of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. The three are no longer suitable for listing because of an order by President Donald Trump, which prohibits any transactions in securities "designed to provide investment exposure to such securities, of any Communist Chinese military company, by any United States person,” said an NYSE statement The delisting will have limited effect, said a China Securities Regulatory Commission spokesperson Sunday: “The size of their [American depositary receipt] listings remains small, less than 2.2% in their respective total equity shares.”

The FCC opposed China Telecom's motion for a stay before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on sharing redacted material with executive branch agencies for review in case 20-2365. China Telecom filed the material in opposition to a recommendation to revoke its authorizations, citing irreparable harm (see 2012100054). The FCC in a response filed Monday accused China Telecom of misrepresenting its cybersecurity practices and failing to take practical actions to prevent unauthorized access to U.S. records.

The U.S. Court of International Trade granted DOJ’s second motion requesting leave to file an updated “schedule of cases” related to the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products Section 301 complaint, said Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu's order (in Pacer) Tuesday in docket 1:20-cv-00177. The motion “concerns overall case management of an unusually large volume of cases, none of which have yet been assigned to an individual Judge,” said DOJ's Tuesday motion. Roughly 3,700 cases have inundated the court, all seeking to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings on Chinese imports and refund the duties. The plaintiffs who responded to DOJ’s Sept. 23 motion (in Pacer) for case management procedures have “generally agreed” the cases other than the HMTX-Jasco action “should be stayed while a test-case procedure is implemented,” said DOJ. The revised schedule of pending cases (in Pacer) attached to the motion spans 194 pages and includes actions filed through Monday. Cases have continued trickling, at least one a day. All assert timeliness under the court’s two-year statute of limitations, dating to first payment of the List 3 tariffs upon the entry of goods in 2018.

Kyocera is expanding its R&D campus in Kirishima City, Kagoshima, Japan, with a 75,000-square-foot center slated to begin construction next month, it said Friday. The $9.6 billion R&D center will focus on information and communications, environmental preservation and smart energy. The Kokubu campus currently houses R&D operations for 5G smartphone technologies; semiconductors and components used in IoT devices; and cell stacks for smart energy. The new facility is to open in September 2022.

That U.S.-based semiconductor fabs cost 40%-70% more than foreign counterparts due to low federal incentives helps explain why American companies account for 48% of the world’s chip sales, but U.S.-based fabs do 12% of such manufacturing, blogged Jeff Rittener, Intel chief government affairs officer. Intel backs the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (Chips) for America Act, passed by Congress last Friday with bipartisan support as part of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), said Rittener Thursday. It establishes a Commerce Department program to provide up to $3 billion “to companies to invest in facilities and equipment in the U.S. for semiconductor fabrication, assembly, testing, advanced packaging” or R&D, he said. This positions the U.S. “to regain our leadership in the semiconductor manufacturing industry and significantly contribute to the nation’s economic and technological success,” he said. “We need federal investment to do so.” Intel urges President Donald Trump to sign the NDAA and the act into law. Trump is threatening an NDAA veto. The White House didn’t respond to questions.

Major "gatekeepers" such as social media services would face tighter supervision under proposed legislation unveiled by the European Commission Tuesday. The Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Market Act (DMA) aim to give users better, more reliable services, allow smaller companies to scale up across the EU and prevent unfair conditions imposed by online platforms that are or are expected to become gatekeepers to the single market, the EC said. They are "milestones in the journey to making Europe fit for the digital age," said EC Vice President Margrethe Vestager. The goal is to ensure internet users have access to a wide range of digital services, all companies can compete online as they do offline, and users can trust what they see online, she said. The DSA contains measures to counter illegal content and has transparency rules for platforms and requirements for very large platforms to prevent abuse of their systems. The DSA builds on existing intermediary liability rules in the EU e-commerce directive. Very large platforms that fail to comply would face fines of up to 6% of global revenue. The DMA applies specifically to gatekeepers, to be defined by their role in the market according to factors such as size, whether they operate as gatekeepers between businesses and users, and whether they have an entrenched position. Gatekeeper obligations, the EC said, would include giving companies that advertise on its platform access to the performance measuring tools it uses. Gatekeepers would need to allow business users to promote their own offers and give such users access to the data generated by those activities. Large platforms would be barred from blocking users from uninstalling and preinstalling software or apps, using data obtained from their business users to compete with those companies, and restricting users from accessing services they found elsewhere. Companies would self-verify as gatekeepers if they meet DMA quantitative thresholds. The EC would then designate them as gatekeepers, and within six months, they would need to comply with DMA rules. Platforms that ignore the rules are subject to fines of up to 10% of revenue, and, if there are systemic infringements, the EC can impose additional remedies such as forcing a unit's sale. The proposed legislation needs approval by the European Parliament and the Council.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 5G subscriptions are growing four times faster than those of 4G LTE, said 5G Americas Monday. The world added 225 million 5G subs from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020, which “required 4G LTE four years to attain,” said the trade group, citing Omdia data. It estimates that 5G customers surpassed 229 million this quarter, a 66% increase from Q2. Subs are expected to reach 236 million globally by Dec. 31, it said. GSMA estimates 519 5G devices have been announced, “of which 303 were commercially available by the end of November."