DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 41-85]
50 FR 46678
November 12, 1985
Foreign-Trade Zone 84, Harris County, TX; Within the Houston Customs Port of
Entry, Application for Special-Purpose Site (Fuel Blending) GATX Terminals
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the
Board) by the Port of Houston Authority, grantee of Foreign-Trade Zone 84,
requesting an amendment to its zone plan to include a special-purpose zone
site for the petroleum product storage terminals of GATX Terminals
Corporation, a subsidiary of GATX Corporation, located in Harris County,
Texas, adjacent to the Houston Customs port of entry. The application was
submitted pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign-Trade Zone Act, as
amended (19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the regulations of the Board (15 CFR
Part 400). It was formally filed on October 25, 1985.
The PHA received authority from the Board to establish a multi-site
foreign-trade zone in Harris County, Texas, on July 15, 1983 (Board Order
214, 48 FR 34792, 8/1/83). While 5 PHA sites were approved as conventional
sites, the remaining sites were approved for 5 years subject to special
conditions. The zone plan was amended in 1985 to delete 8 and add 10
non-PHA sites subject to the same conditions as the original ones (Board
Order 303, 50 FR 20252). The proposed amendment of the plan for the GATX
sites would also be subject to the same time limitation as the other
non-PHA sites.
The proposed zone site would involve GATX's two, public, liquid bulk
terminals on the Houston Ship Channel in Harris County. Site 1 covers 94
acres on Clinton Drive at Panther Creek. Site 2 covers 52 acres on North
Witter Street at Bayou Street. The two facilities have a combined storage
capacity of 17 million barrels, handling and distributing primarily motor
fuels and petrochemical products for a variety of customers.
Zone status would be used for the blending and storage of foreign
unfinished gasoline, reformate, naptha, pyrolysis gasoline and c/9
aromatics. These products would be combined with domestic blendstocks to
make motor fuel primarily for the domestic market. The foreign products
would account for about 50 to 70 percent of the finished gasoline.
Zone procedures would permit duty payments to be made on the foreign
products at the rate available to importers of finished motor fuel, which
is 1 1/4 ~ per gallon compared with an average duty rate on the primary
foreign components of 15~ per gallon. The applicant states that these
savings would result in lower gasoline costs to consumers and in improved
access to alternate sources of gasoline. In reviewing the public interest
aspects of the proposal the Board will consider its impact on domestic
petroleum product refiners.
In accordance with the regulations, an examiners committee has been
appointed to investigate the application and report to the Board. The
committee consists of: John J. Da Ponte, Jr. (Chairman), Director, Foreign-
Trade Zones Staff, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 20230;
Donald Gough, Deputy Assistant Regional Commissioner, U.S. Customs Service,
Southwest Region, 5850 San Filipe Street, Houston, TX 77057; and Colonel
Gordon M. Clarke, District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Galveston,
P.O. Box 1229, Galveston, TX 77553.
Comments concerning the proposed subzone are invited in writing from
interested parties. They should be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or before December 17,
1985.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
U.S. Dept. of Commerce District Office,
2625 Federal Courthouse,
515 Rusk St.,
Houston, TX 77002;
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 1529,
14th and Pennslvania, NW.,
Washington, D.C. 20230.
Dated: November 5, 1985.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 85-26828 Filed 11-8-85; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M