There’s a “danger of complacency” in the information and communications tech supply chain that the economic risks of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will stay confined to Europe, Stephen Minton, IDC program vice president-data and analytics, told an IDC “first look” webinar Thursday on the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the global ICT market. Minton estimates $240 billion or more in global ICT spending could be “wiped out” from the war through 2025, and that’s assuming the most “optimistic scenario” of a diplomatic end to the hostilities within three months.
Minnesota Democrats and Republicans joined on a social media bill to regulate how platforms use algorithms to target children. Tennessee legislation to more broadly regulate social media also advanced this week. In Vermont, legislators plan to pursue data privacy next year, said House Commerce Committee Chairman Michael Marcotte (R) at a Wednesday hearing.
Consumer tech, retail and media companies are serving up deals and programming for the 68-team NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament that begins Thursday at various locations around the country and runs through April 4.
The Forced Labor Working Group (FLWG) of the retail and fashion industries “proposes a holistic and collaborative multi-faceted framework” for enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) “that will meet U.S. jurisprudence and due process requirements,” including keeping a public database of bad actors and the tainted import goods they’re associated with, commented the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the U.S. Fashion Industry Association on the FLWG’s behalf, as posted Wednesday in docket DHS-2022-0001.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are negotiating to begin conference on the China package this work period, a Senate aide told us Monday (see 2203010077). The work period is scheduled to end April 8.
Marking the “grim” two-year anniversary of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay extolled the role retailers played for consumers during the “massive disruption,” while he reined in expectations for 2022. Inflation is expected to “remain higher than previously expected and not to cool down” until the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% is reached “sometime in 2023,” he said on a Tuesday webcast.
After years of preparation, 5G is about to become real for many consumers, speakers said during a virtual AT&T Policy Forum Tuesday. It's at “the jump off point,” said David Christopher, AT&T executive vice president-partnerships and 5G ecosystem development. “The reality is, it’s early days,” he said.
July 6 will be the fourth anniversary of the List 1 Section 301 tariffs taking effect on Chinese imports, and the 1974 Trade Act requires their expiration after four years, “unless some conditions are met,” said David Olave, a Sandler Travis associate and trade policy adviser, on a Thursday podcast. “No unilateral 301 action that I know has made it through the four years, so we’re about to witness trade policy procedural history,” he said.
Though the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) designates polysilicon as a “high-priority enforcement sector,” the polysilicon produced in Xinjiang, and elsewhere in China, “currently does not meet the extremely high levels of purity required for semiconductor-grade polysilicon,” commented the Semiconductor Industry Association in docket DHS-2022-0001. The comments posted there Friday were in response to a Department of Homeland Security notice in January on how best to comply with UFLPA measures for preventing goods produced with forced labor in China from being imported into the U.S. (see 2203110054).
LAS VEGAS -- After two years of frenzied demand for residential technology due to COVID-19-inspired focus on remote work and home entertainment systems, it’s unclear how demand will shift as consumers begin spending again on travel and entertainment as pandemic restrictions ease, dealers told us at the ProSource Summit last week.