Arris Fears Chinese Tariffs Will Harm US 5G ‘Leadership,' Broadband Deployment

Arris emphasized “serious concerns” in meetings last week with aides to FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel about “harmful effects” the third tranche of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs will have on “U.S. 5G leadership" and broadband deployment, it posted Tuesday in docket 13-49. The 10 percent tariffs took effect Sept. 24 on “core broadband infrastructure and networking equipment and other critical inputs for wireless and wireline connectivity, as well as consumer broadband equipment,” and will “automatically increase” to 25 percent Jan. 1 (see 1809240025 or 1809240011), said Arris. “At just the 10 percent level,” Arris estimates the fees will impose $200 million a year “in additional costs on its equipment and devices.” The levies already had “serious business implications” for Arris when an analyst downgraded the stock because of the expected higher tariff-related costs, it said. The tariffs “risk slowing deployment of 5G and broadband more generally, diverting resources away from 5G and other broadband research and development efforts,” it said. Arris tried to enlist FCC support for an “exclusion process” for the third tranche of duties to give affected companies “additional time to make adjustments to their operations and mitigate the harms,” it said. The Trump administration has announced no process for requesting exemptions on the third tranche of tariffs as it did on the first two.