DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 28-88]
53 FR 36086
September 16, 1988
Foreign-Trade Zone 47 -- Campbell County, KY; Cincinnati Customs Port of
Entry; Application for Subzone; Clarion Auto Audio Equipment Plant,
Walton, KY
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the
Board) by the Greater Cincinnati Foreign-Trade Zone, Inc., grantee of FTZ 47,
requesting special-purpose subzone status for the automobile audio equipment
manufacturing plant of Clarion Manufacturing Corporation of America (CMCA)
(subsidiary of Clarion Company, Ltd., Japan), located in Walton, Kentucky,
adjacent to the Cincinnati Customs port of entry. The application was
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). It was formally filed on September 6, 1988.
The CMCA plant (20 acres) is located at 237 Beaver Road in Walton,
Kentucky, about 20 miles south of Cincinnati. The facility employs 64
persons and is used to produce automobile radios and tape players. CMCA
presently imports kits for assembly at the plant, and ships the completed
radios and tape players primarily to U.S. auto assembly plants. At the
outset of zone operations, all of the components used in the operation will
be sourced abroad, such as printed circuit boards, capacitors, motors,
switches, resistors, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, but CMCA's
goal is to raise the domestic content of its units to 60 percent of total
value by 1990.
Zone procedures would exempt CMCA from duty payments on the foreign
components that are exported. On products shipped to U.S. auto assembly
plants with subzone status, the company would be able to take advantage of
the same duty rate available to importers of complete automobiles. The duty
rates on the components range from 2 to 10 percent, while the duty rate on
autos is 2.5 percent. CMCA is currently paying duties on the radio (8%) and
tape player kits (3.7%). The applicant indicates that the zone savings will
help improve the company's international competitiveness.
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), Foreign-Trade Zones
Staff, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230; John F. Nelson,
District Director, U.S. Customs Service, North Central Region, Plaza Nine
Building, 55 Erie View Plaza, Cleveland, Ohio 44114; and Colonel Robert L.
Oliver, District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Louisville, P.O. Box
59, Louisville, Kentucky 40201.
Comments concerning the proposed subzone are invited in writing from
interested parties. They shall be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or before October 31, 1988.
A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:
U.S. Department of Commerce District Office,
9504 Federal Office Building,
650 Main Street,
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 1529,
14th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230
Dated: September 9, 1988.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 88-21213 Filed 9-15-88; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M