Though the U.S.-China trade war continues with no end in sight, the good news for Broadcom’s semiconductor segment is that “we have not seen further deterioration in our business" since last quarter, said CEO Hock Tan on a fiscal Q3 call Thursday. That prompted Broadcom to leave unchanged its forecast, downgraded on its June call from the $2 billion hit from the trade war (see 1906140011), of $17.5 billion in semiconductor revenue for the fiscal year ending in November, said Tan. “Visibility” into the next fiscal year “continues to be very limited on the semiconductor side,” he said. “So we are managing the business with an expectation that we will continue to operate in a very low-growth, uncertain macro environment for the foreseeable future.” The trade war “is turning into an extended affair with lots of twists and turns in uncertainty,” said Tan. “We are assuming” trade conditions next fiscal year are “not going to change from what we're seeing now,” which means “you probably see a very uncertain 2020,” he said. Broadcom is at least three months away from being able to give clearer 2020 guidance, “but as we sit here right now,” it appears “we have hit bottom” in the semiconductor business, he said. “We're kind of staying at the bottom.” There’s not “much clarity or visibility yet or certainty that any sharp recovery is around the corner,” he said. The stock closed 3.1 percent lower Friday at $290.32. The “fundamentals” of Broadcom’s semiconductor business “remain strong,” said Tan. “We continue to benefit from the underlying trend in the IT world and insatiable need for increasing bandwidth to connect things.”

Cybersecurity company Cloudflare submitted “incorrect information” on hardware exports to the Commerce Department and received payments from people and entities on a sanctions list of foreigners, it told the SEC this month. It voluntarily disclosed possible violations to the Bureau of Industry and Security and Office of Foreign Assets Control this year. It took “remedial measures” to prevent future violations, and agencies are reviewing the potential violations, the company said. The firm said it sells products to “certain OFAC-sanctioned regions” through the use of general licenses. The company didn't comment further Friday. The SEC filing involved an initial public offering, which the agency acted on Thursday, the firm said then. In the first day of trading in U.S. markets under the NET ticker Friday, shares closed up 20 percent at $18.

President Donald Trump delayed for two weeks to Oct. 15 hiking to 30 percent the first three rounds of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods (see 1908290024) “as a gesture of good will,” he tweeted Wednesday. Trump said he did so at the request of Vice Premier Liu He, the lead Chinese trade negotiator, so the tariff increase wouldn’t coincide with China’s 70th anniversary celebration. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t respond to email queries Thursday about whether it will extend the comments deadline on the proposed tariff increase. Comments are due Sept. 20 in docket USTR-2019-0015.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has granted about 35 percent of the roughly 15,000 requests it received to have products excluded from Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, customs expert John Brew with Crowell & Moring told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Thursday. “Frankly, there’s a bit of subjectivity in the requests that we’ve seen granted so far,” said Brew. “Sometimes it’s hard to make sense of what’s happening. Part of that is because I think the USTR is overwhelmed. They have tens of thousands of requests and only a few people working on them.” Brew recalled a client who got USTR notification that its exclusion requests had been denied, only to find out later in a Federal Register notice that all had been granted. “Things like that happen, and you just never know how USTR is going to decide, unfortunately,” he said. There’s no exclusion process “yet set” for the List 4 tariffs, said Brew. “That should be coming at some point in the near future. We just don’t know when that’s going to happen.” USTR didn’t comment.

Frustrations boiled over among the few whose comments were the first to be posted Wednesday in docket USTR-2019-0015 on the Trump administration’s proposal to hike by five points the first three rounds of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 percent, effective Oct. 1 (see 1908290024). Several blasted President Donald Trump for falsely claiming China pays the tariffs, not U.S. importers or consumers. “The Chinese people, their government or the suppliers of the product are not paying these tariffs,” commented Christopher Grace, who gave no company or industry affiliation. “That List 4a & 4b were created instead of just 1 list, is evidence that the US government is concerned that consumers are going to be hurt.” Display Supply & Lighting (DS&L), which builds display booths for trade show exhibitors, including many at CES, needs to “immediately debunk the rhetoric that the Duty is a tax on China and is being paid by China,” wrote Vice President Robert Cohen. “This is nothing but a complete misstatement,” he said. “The Duty is being paid by our company, the Duty is being financed as part of the cost of our inventory and a portion of the Duty is then being passed along to our customer. There are no dollars from China paying any of the Duty on our products!” Cohen shared "my company’s frustration as to the amount of time the U.S. government has forced us to spend on non-revenue producing matters” involving the tariffs. DS&L spent considerable time and expense testifying against the tariffs last year at a hearing that “was nothing but a perfunctory exercise,” he wrote. It also expended “significant amounts of time” filing exclusion requests and educating employees “as to how to deal with the situation when customers contact us” to protest price increases, he said. He also resents “preparing this document which has a due date 9 days prior to the proposed imposition date of an increased duty rate," he said. Comments are due Sept. 20.

The Chinese denied President Donald Trump's allegations they're dragging their feet in U.S. trade talks in hopes of winning a more favorable deal with a new administration in 2021. “China's position, attitude and practice on the trade issue with the U.S. is consistent,” said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Wednesday. “We never wanted a trade war. We always hope to reach a mutually acceptable win-win solution through equal-footed and respectful consultation.” There’s “a lot of rational voice” within the U.S. “hoping for the early conclusion of an agreement to prevent further escalation of the trade friction,” and the Trump administration “should heed the call,” she said. Trump is sure China “would love to be dealing with a new administration so they could continue their practice of ‘ripoff USA’” to the tune of $600 billion a year, tweeted the president Sept. 3.

President Donald Trump “overstepped his power” to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, “and our nation’s businesses and families are footing the bill,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro Wednesday, urging Congress to “intervene.” With fewer than 40 legislative days left this year, the Senate and House should hold hearings on S-899 and HR-3477, said Shapiro. The bills would raise congressional oversight of the Trump administration’s Trade Act Section 301 tariff actions but have gone nowhere since their introduction (see 1909020001). The legislation would “protect Americans from this seemingly endless trade war,” said Shapiro. “Congress has the power to review and should use its limited time left to investigate the scope and intent of the president’s misguided trade policy.”

Imports at major U.S. retail container ports reached “unusually high numbers” just before the new 15 percent Section 301 tariffs on List 4A Chinese goods took effect Sept. 1, said the National Retail Federation Tuesday. Imports “are expected to surge again” before the List 4B tariffs take effect Dec. 15, it said. “Retailers are still trying to minimize the impact of the trade war on consumers by bringing in as much merchandise as they can before each new round of tariffs takes effect and drives up prices." U.S. ports handled 1.96 million 20-foot-long cargo containers or their equivalents in July, the latest month for which actual numbers are available, said NRF. That was up 9.1 percent sequentially from June and a 2.9 percent increase from July 2018, it said. “Likely driven by the new tariffs” scheduled to take effect Dec. 15, November imports will reach 1.97 million containers, the highest monthly total since shipments topped 2 million last October, NRF forecasts.

A Commerce Department agency clarified more questions (see 1908210078) about what amounts to an partial ban related to Huawei products, without saying if the reprieve would be extended past Nov. 18. The Bureau of Industry and Security isn't offering more export license exceptions, said FAQs, as of Tuesday. Current authorization allows certain activities supporting existing U.S. networks with Huawei, including supporting operators on “debugging, configuration, and other activities to maintain services." Also OK: “emergency and planned software updates necessary to maintain network operability; in-life upgrades of equipment and components to maintain (but not expand) capacity; and in-life replacements of defective hardware.” Not allowed are things that would "increase or enhance the functionality of the network." Services “are generally not subject” to these restrictions, though in the telecom industry, services describing “export or transfer (in-country) of software or technology in terms of, inter alia, operation and/or management of a telecommunications network” do fall under restrictions, said additional new FAQs. “General purpose computing devices” aren't covered under the mandates, which do include “personal consumer electronic devices” of “phones and other personally-owned equipment, such as tablets, smart watches, televisions, and mobile hotspots such as MiFi devices.”

Democrats should join with Republicans in Congress to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade, wrote Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, in a Washington Post opinion Monday. “Democrats should be leading the charge for its passage,” because they've long criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement, “and because the USMCA addresses the major concerns they have raised with NAFTA,” said Portman, who was U.S. trade representative under President George W. Bush. USMCA “adopts long-held Democratic positions on jobs, labor and environmental standards,” he said, plus other issues. If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were to bring USMCA to the floor for a vote, “I am confident it would pass,” he said. “The Senate would quickly follow suit.” Trade with Mexico and Canada supports more than 12 million U.S. jobs, said Portman. “Our trade relationship with our neighbors must be built on a healthy foundation. It’s been 25 years since we entered into NAFTA, and it must now be updated to reflect our 21st-century economy.” Tech interests say likewise (see 1909090021).