CTA declined comment on the amici brief signed by dozens of tech companies backing the states of Washington and Minnesota in their fight to keep President Donald Trump’s now-suspended immigration executive order from being reinstated (see 1702060016). “We have not yet reviewed the brief,” CTA President Gary Shapiro emailed us Tuesday. “We stand by our initial statement” two days after the order was first released (see 1701290001) that blocking access en masse of employees of U.S. companies who are lawful visa and green card holders based on religion or national origin raises constitutional issues, Shapiro said. He also testified at last week’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens that he thinks the immigration order isn’t good for business (see report in the Feb. 2 issue of this publication). Eight more companies, for a total of 135, filed letters of joinder Tuesday adding their support to the tech industry's amici brief against the immigration order. They are Akamai, Credo Mobile, Fitbit, Molecule Software, PostMates, QuantCast, SoundCloud and SpotHero. Oral argument on the Trump administration’s emergency motion to stay a lower court’s temporary restraining order that blocked enforcement of the immigration order was scheduled for 3 p.m. PST Tuesday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

As the Trump administration considers Google antitrust issues, the European Commission likely will issue a ruling against the search company, Cowen and Co. analyst Paul Gallant emailed Wednesday. One EC investigation on search bias in online shopping "is still in the pipeline," Gallant said, but "a negative ruling against Google" is likely in the coming months. Such a ruling will be the first of several verticals, including travel and local search, that the EC could use as leverage against the company, which probably won't settle, he said. A second investigation on Android dominance likely will occur in Q3, he said. Citing last week's The New York Times story about Google being an issue for the White House, Gallant said the company "is still viewed as a Democratic company in a Republican town, and [Executive Chairman] Eric Schmidt's campaign efforts for Hillary Clinton may make Google more of a target." Gallant said if either FTC Acting Chairwoman Maureen Ohlhausen or former Commissioner Joshua Wright ultimately helms the commission, their "past statements ... would seem encouraging for Google." But it's unclear if EC action would help or hurt the company in the U.S., Gallant said. The FTC would get cover to reopen its probe and wouldn't appear politically motivated, but the White House may also react negatively to European meddling in a U.S. company, he said. The company didn't comment.

ICANN is “monitoring and evaluating” the effect that President Donald Trump's executive order curtailing immigration, at least temporarily, from seven Muslim-majority countries will have some its community members’ ability to travel to the organization’s upcoming March 11-16 meeting in Copenhagen, the board said in a Tuesday blog post. The executive order reportedly prevented ICANN board member Kaveh Ranjbar from flying to Los Angeles Monday for a board workshop. Ranjbar, chief information officer for nonprofit regional registry RIPE NCC, was born in Iran and lives in the Netherlands. Trump’s order “may make it more difficult for certain community members” to travel to Copenhagen for the ICANN meeting and the organization said it's “trying to learn all we can about the implementation of the Order and what it means in practical terms for the ICANN community, employees and Board in the near and longer term.” The organization urged “all governments to help support the freedom of participation in ICANN and similar bodies.” Tech sector stakeholders have criticized Trump’s order (see 1701290001, 1701300023 and 1701310049). ICANN did not explain why it believes the Trump order could affect travel to the Copenhagen meeting.

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 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.