DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 14-81]
46 FR 46151
September 17, 1981
Foreign-Trade Zone No. 14, Little Rock; Application for Subzone
TEXT: Notice is hereby given that an application has been submitted to the
Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the Board) by the Little Rock Port Authority
(LRPA) on behalf of the State of Arkansas, grantee of Foreign-Trade Zone
No. 14, requesting authority to establish a special-purpose subzone at the
Sanyo Manufacturing Corporation facility in Forrest City, Arkansas,
adjacent to the Memphis Customs port of entry. The application was
submitted pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign-Trade Zones Act of
1934, as amended (19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the regulations of the Board
(15 CFR Part 400). It was formally filed on September 10, 1981.
On October 4, 1972, the Board authorized the State of Arkansas, through
its Department of Industrial Development, to establish a foreign-trade zone
project in the Little Rock area (Board Order No. 90, 37 FR 21461). Operated
and administered by LRPA, the zone project currently covers 25 acres in the
City's port terminal area.
LRPA requests subzone status for the Sanyo Manufacturing Corporation's
(SMC) production and assembly plant, located at 3333 Sanyo Road, Forrest
City, Arkansas. The 162-acre facility contains six buildings with a total
of 1.2 million square feet of floor space. SMC manufactures and assembles
color television receivers, telecaption adaptors and microwave ovens from
foreign and domestic components. The plant also produces wooden TV
cabinets and other furniture.
Zone procedures will permit SMC to export finished television sets and
microwave ovens without paying duties on foreign components. On domestic
sales, the company can take advantage of the same duty rates that are
available to importers of the finished products, thus encouraging assembly
in the U.S. The duty rate is 5 percent for finished televisions and 4
percent for microwave ovens, whereas the weighted-average duty rates for
the imported components used by SMC are 5.7 and 5.5 percent for
televisions and microwave ovens respectively. The applicant indicates that
the savings available from zone procedures will play a major role in SMC's
decision to expand the plant's operations, including a substantial increase
in production for export, which would add some 300 employees to the
plant's workforce by 1983.
In accordance with the Board's regulations, an Examiners Committee has
been appointed to investigate the application and report to the Board.
The committee consists of Dennis Puccinelli (Chairman), International
Trade Specialist, Foreign-Trade Zones Staff, U.S. Department of Commerce,
Washington, D.C. 20230; Max G. Willis, District Director, U.S. Customs
Service, Region V, 423 Canal Street, Room 244, New Orleans, Louisiana
70130; and Colonel John F. Hatch, Jr., District Engineer, U.S. Army
Engineer District Memphis, 668 Clifford Davis Federal Building, Memphis,
Tennessee 38103.
Comments concerning the proposed zone expansion are invited in writing
from interested persons and organizations. They should be addressed to the
Board's Executive Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or
before October 15, 1981.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
U.S. Department of Commerce District Office,
147 Jefferson Avenue, Room 710,
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce,
14th and E Streets, N.W., Room 2006,
Washington, D.C. 20230
Dated: September 11, 1981.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board.
[FR Doc. 81-26988 Filed 9-16-81; 8:45 am]