DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket Nos. 35 and 36-84]
49 FR 34380
August 30, 1984
Foreign-Trade Zone 23, Erie County, NY; Applications for Subzones for
Ontario Knife and Robinson Knife
TEXT: Applications have been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the County of Erie, New York, grantee of Foreign-Trade Zone
23, requesting special-purpose subzone status for the manufacturing
facilities of Ontario Knife Company in Franklinville, New York, and those
of the Robinson Knife Company in Springville, New York, both in the Buffalo
Customs port of entry area.
The applications were submitted pursuant to the provisions of the
Foreign-Trade Zones Act, as amended (19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the
regulations of the Board (15 CFR Part 400). They were formally filed on
August 22, 1984. The applicant is authorized to make this proposal under
Chapter 201 of the Laws of New York, 1974, as amended by Chapter 60 of the
Laws of New York, 1984. A POE adjacency issue regarding the Ontario Knife
facility will be reviewed by the U.S. Customs Service.
The proposed subzone for Ontario Knife would be at the company's
manufacturing plant covering 8 acres at Riggs and Empire Street,
Franklinville, Cattaraugus County. The company produces professional knives
and other cutlery employing 150 persons. Because of import competition,
now at some 40 percent of the U.S. market, the company has indicated that
unless it uses some lower-priced foreign stainless and carbon steel for its
blades, either complete knives or blades would have to be imported in
order to keep its market. The company also plans to increase its export
sales.
The proposed subzone for Robinson Knife would be located at the
company's manufacturing facilities covering 14 acres at Main and Carolina
Streets in Springville, Erie County. The company and its on-site
subsidiaries, Fiddlers Green Plastics and Griffon Cutlery Company, produce
cutlery, kitchen tools, scissors and manicure sets. The company imports
some finished cutler, scissors and most manicure implements and sets. It
plans to produce more of the manicure implements and assemble the sets
domestically using foreign components and domestic materials such as
handles. There would also be a greater effort to export.
Zone procedures will exempt both companies from payment of duties on
foreign material used in their exports. This is especially important to
Ontario Knife which is planning a major expansion in Canadian and other
foreign markets. On domestic sales, benefits include duty deferral and the
ability to take advantage of the same duty rate available to importers of
completed products. The duty rate on steel for knives to be used by
Ontario Knife is 7.6 percent for carbon steel and 19.5 percent for
stainless, whereas the duty for knives is 7 percent and knife blades is
3.6 percent. The duty rate for the manicure implements now imported by
Robinson Knife is 11.9 percent, while the rate for manicure sets is 6.3
percent. The savings from zone procedures will help both companies reduce
costs on products that are competing with products made abroad. Both
plants are threatened with cutbacks in employment unless costs are
reduced.
In accordance with the Board's regulations, an examiners committee has
been appointed to investigate the applications and report to the Board.
The committee consists of: Dennis Puccinelli (Chairman) Foreign-Trade Zone
Staff, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 20230; Edward A.
Goggin, Assistant Regional Commissioner, U.S. Customs Service, Northeast
Region, 100 Summer St., Boston, MA 02110; and Colonel Robert R. Hardiman,
District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Buffalo, 1776 Niagara St.,
Buffalo, N.Y. 14207.
Comments concerning the proposed subzones 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 September 29, 1984.
Copies of the applications are available for public inspection at each
of the following locations:
U.S. Dept. of Commerce District Office,
1312 Federal Bldg.,
111 W. Huron Street,
Buffalo, N.Y. 14202
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 1529,
14th and Pennsylvania, NW.,
Washington, D.C. 20230
Dated: August 24, 1984.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 84-23056 Filed 8-29-84; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-25-M