NOTICES
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
[Docket No. 55-91]
Foreign-Trade Zone 43--Battle
Creek, MI, Application for Subzone; Mead Johnson
Infant Formula/Nutritional Products Plant, Zeeland, MI
Thursday, October 3, 1991
An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the
Board) by the City of Battle Creek, grantee of FTZ 43, requesting special-
purpose subzone status for the infant formula and nutritional products
manufacturing facilities of Mead Johnson & Company (MJC) (subsidiary of
Bristol-Myers Squibb), located in Zeeland (southern Ottawa County),
Michigan. 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 24, 1991.
The MJC facilities consist of a main manufacturing plant and two warehouses
in Zeeland, approximately 30 miles southwest of Kent County International
Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The manufacturing plant (110,000 sq. ft.
on 29 acres) is located at 725 East Main Street in Zeeland, and the
application also covers a planned expansion of this site to include a
125,000 sq. ft.-production facility. The remaining two sites are individual
warehouses located at 601 East Roosevelt Avenue and 220 East Riley Street
in Zeeland.
The MJC plant is used to produce infant formula, adult nutritional formula
and other nutritional products for export and the domestic market. While
many of the products are milk-based, certain products involve non-dairy,
soy-based formulas. Foreign ingredients include: Powdered milk, casein,
whey protein concentrate, animal by-products, grain by-products, chemicals
(phosphates, hydroxides, sulfates, chlorates, vitamins), coloring matter,
and various vegetable fats, oils and margarine (duty rate range:
free--22.5%). The applicant indicates that foreign milk products will be
used only in production for export. Products destined for the U.S. market
would certain only domestic dairy products.
Zone products would allow MJC to use world-priced, ex-quota foreign-milk
products in its exports, and would also exempt it from Customs duty
payments on the foreign materials used in its export production. On its
domestic sales, the company would be able to choose duty rates that apply
to finished formula and nutritionals (HTS Headings 1901, 2104, 2106, 3004;
duty rates: Free--16.2%, 15.4 cents/Kg.). The applicant indicates that
subzone status would help improve MJC's international competitiveness and
be a major factor in the expansion of its Zeeland plant instead one of the
company's offshore facilities.
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-Trde Zones
Staff, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230; William L.
Morandini, District Director, U.S. Customs Service, North Central Region,
McNamara Federal Building, suite 200, 477 Michigan Avenue, Detroit,
Michigan 48226; and, Colonel Richard Kanda, District Engineer, U.S. Army
Engineer District Detroit, P.O. Box 1027, Detroit, Michigan 48231-1027,
Office: McNamara Federal Building, 477 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Michigan
48226.
Comments concerning the proposed foreign-trade subzone are invited from
interested parties. They should be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below and postmarked on or before November 29, 1991.
A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be available for
public inspection at each of the following locations:
U.S. Department of Commerce, District Office,
McNamara Federal Building, suite 1140,
477 Michigan Avenue,
Detroit, Michigan 48226.
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, room 3716,
14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230
Dated: September 27, 1991.
John T. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 91-23852 Filed 10-2-91; 8:45 am]