DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 27-84
49 FR 22120
May 25, 1984
Foreign-Trade Subzone 78A, Nissan Truck Plant, Smyrna, Tennessee; Request
for Approval for Automobile Manufacturing
TEXT: The Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County Port Authority, grantee of
Foreign-Trade Zone 78, Nashville, and Subzone 78A at the truck manufacturing
plant of Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corporation U.S.A. in Smyrna, Tennessee,
has requested approval from the Foreign-Trade Zones Board for authority to
expand the scope of operations conducted under zone procedures at Subzone 78A
to include automobile manufacturing. The request was filed on May 17, 1984.
Subzone 78A was approved on April 2, 1982 (Board Order 190, 47 FR 16191,
4/15/82) as a truck manufacturing plant. Production began in June 1983, and
by the end of 1984, the facility, which employs 1,900 persons, will be
producing trucks at an annual rate of 120,000.
Nissan now plans to expand the scope of operations to produce some
100,000 automobiles, initially the Sentra model, adding some 1,100 new
jobs. The company plans to use a mix of foreign and domestic parts with
foreign parts expected to include engines, transaxles and other drive train
components, brake and steering systems, electronic components and a
portion of their steel requirement. At the outset a substantial majority of
parts will be foreign sourced. The company indicates that it will attempt
to shift to domestic suppliers for a number of components as soon as
possible. Such a policy is already evident in its truck operation, which is
served by some 83 U.S. suppliers.
Zone procedures would exempt Nissan from paying duties on foreign
components used for its exports. On its domestic sales, the company will be
able to take advantage of the same duty rate available to importers of
finished autos. The average duty rate on auto parts is about 5 percent
compared to 2.7 percent for autos. The savings from zone procedures will
help Nissan's U.S. operation compete with auto production facilities
offshore.
Comments on the proposed manufacturing operation 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 June 26, 1984.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Room 1872,
14th and Pennsylvania NW.,
Washington, D.C. 20230.
Dated: May 18, 1984.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 84-14028 Filed 5-24-84; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M