DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket 11-90]
55 FR 11631
March 29, 1990
Foreign-Trade Zone 78 -- Nashville, TN; Application for Subzone; Form
Rite Automotive Tubing Parts Plant, Hawkins County, TN
TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the Metropolitan Nashville Port Authority, grantee of FTZ 78,
requesting special-purpose subzone status for the automotive tubing
components manufacturing plant of Form Rite Corporation (subsidiary of FAH
Holdings, Ltd., of Canada), in Hawkins County, Tennessee. 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 March 2, 1990.
Form Rite Corporation (FRCorp) is planning to establish a production
facility at Building "C" on a 9-acre parcel within the Phipps Bend Joint
Venture Industrial Park, some 9 miles southwest of Kingsport, Hawkins
County, Tennessee. The site is adjacent to Subzone 78D at the nuclear power
equipment storage facility of Global Power Company, formerly a TVA
facility. FRCorp will use the facility to produce steel tubing components
for automobiles, including power steering parts, transmission and engine
oil cooler lines, and transmission oil filler tubes. The company. sources
the steel tubing ( 1/4 - 1/2 inches in diameter) from affiliated plants in
Canada. Many of the other components such as fittings and seals would be
purchased from U.S. suppliers.
FRCorp's Canadian affiliate currently exports the finished auto
components to the United States duty-free under the U.S./Canadian Automotive
Products Trade Agreement (APTA). The steel tubing to be used at the new
U.S. plant would be subject to a 6.4 percent duty rate because it is not at
a sufficiently advanced stage of processing to be considered an auto part
under the APTA. Zone procedures would allow FRCorp to defer Customs entry
on the steel tubing until it is made into auto components, which then could
be entered duty-free as an APTA product. The applicant indicates that the
savings are an essential factor in its plans to locate the plant in the
United States. Zone procedures would be used during the 8 years that remain
prior to full implement of the U.S. Canadian Free Trade Agreement.
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; Joel Mish,
District Director, U.S. Customs Service, South Central Region, 423 Canal
Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130; and Colonel James P. King, District
Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Nashville, P.O. Box 1070, Nashville,
Tennessee 37202.
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 May 7, 1990.
A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be available
during this time for public inspection at each of the following locations:
U.S. Department of Commerce, District Office,
404 James Robertson Parkway,
Nashville, Tennessee 38103-1505
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce,
14th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Room 2835,
Washington,DC 20230
Dated: March 22, 1990.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 90-7131 Filed 3-28-90; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M