Department of Commerce

U.S. authorities on April 19 imposed a $300 million penalty on Seagate Technology, to resolve alleged violations of export controls related to selling hard disk drives to Huawei Technologies, the Commerce Department said.

The manufacturer was involved in the shipment of hard disk drives valued over $1.1 billion to Huawei entities despite U.S. controls.

The US administration has suspended the export licenses of American companies for the production of the Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei and is considering the introduction of а ban, the Financial Times reported.

The United States has announced new export controls aimed at restricting China's ability to buy and manufacture high-end chips with military applications, stepping up tensions between the countries.

The Commerce Department said the targeted companies had supplied items to Russian “entities of concern” before the February 24 invasion

Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg.   

President Donald Trump escalated his war on Twitter and other social media companies on May 28, signing an executive order challenging the lawsuit protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet.

President Trump's government has announced that it is extending Huawei's provisional license for another 45 days (to allow US companies to find alternatives to the Chinese telecommunications giant, which was considered a security threat to the United States, France Press reported.

The United States Department of Commerce said it would impose additional duties on imports of steel from China and Mexico as a result of an investigation into the so- "countervailing duties," BNR reported.

The U.S. Defense Department supports moves by the Commerce Department to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, although it would prefer a system of targeted tariffs rather than a global quota or a global tariff.

The number of international visitors to the United States has dropped for the first time since 2009, as did their spending, the U.S. Department of Commerce said on Aug. 11.

In 2016, 75.6 million international travelers ventured stateside, a two percent drop from the previous year. Their spending also fell by one percent to $244.7 billion.