NOTICES

                           DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

                               Foreign-Trade Zones Board

                               (Docket 45-93)

    Foreign-Trade Zone 50--Long Beach, CA; Application for Subzone, Alps
Manufacturing (USA) Plants (Computer/Telecommunication/Video Equipment and
            Auto Parts) Long Beach/Los Angeles Port of Entry Area

                        Thursday, September 2, 1993


An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the
Board) by the Board of Harbor Commissioners of the City of Long Beach,
California, grantee of FTZ 50, requesting special-purpose subzone status
for the computer/telecommunication/video equipment and auto electronic
parts manufacturing facilities of Alps Manufacturing (USA), Inc. (Alps)
(affiliated with Alps Electric Company, Ltd., Japan), in Garden Grove and
in Compton, California. 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 August 16, 1993.

The Alps facilities involve two sites: Site 1 (13.5 acres)--main
manufacturing plant, 7301 Orangewood Avenue, Garden Grove (Orange County);
and, Site 2 (2.7 acres)--warehousing and packaging facility, 1701 West
Walnut Parkway, Compton (Los Angeles County). The facilities (650
employees) are currently used to manufacture computer keyboards, graphic
input devices, floppy disk drives, auto switches, and auto airbag clock
spring reel devices. Other products that may be manufactured at the
facilities include a variety of computer/telecommunication/video
equipment/components and auto electronic components, including
laptop/palmtop computers, printers, computer game units and cartridges,
joysticks, hard disk drives, liquid crytal displays (LCDs), monitors,
keyboard switches, LAN systems, keyless entry devices, heads-up displays,
computer docking systems, control panel assemblies with LCD, digital pen
pointers, remote control units, digital compass units, cellular phone
assemblies, multipiler module assemblies, auto switch modules, RF tuners,
and optical/mechanical equipment.

Certain parts and materials are sourced from abroad (some 25 percent of
finished product value) including: Switches, cables, circuit boards,
components for disk drive units, and switch assemblies. Other products that
may also be sourced from abroad include parts for computer and other data
processing equipment, audio/video equipment/components, TV receivers/parts,
glass envelopes, lenses, electrical equipment, capacitors, resistors,
transistors, microphones, instruments, medical equipment, radar/radio
equipment, motor vehicle parts, fasteners, springs, shafts, wire, certain
chemicals, rubber products, packaging materials, and typewriter ribbons.

Zone procedures would exempt Alps from Customs duty payments on the foreign
materials that are exported. On its domestic sales, the company would be
able to choose the duty rates that apply to the finished products (zero to
8.2%). The duty rates on foreign-sourced components currently used at the
plant range from duty-free to 5.3 percent, and the duty rate on other
components that may also be sourced from abroad range from duty-free to 16
percent. For example, keyboards are duty free while the rate on certain
keyboard components is 5.3 percent. The application indicates that zone
savings will help improve the plant's international competitiveness.

In accordance with the Board's regulations, a member of the FTZ Staff has
been designated examiner to investigate the application and report to the
Board. Public comment is invited from interested parties. Submissions
(original and 3 copies) shall be addressed to the Board's Executive
Secretary at the address below. The closing period for their receipt is
November 1, 1993. Rebuttal comments in response to material submitted
during the foregoing period may be submitted during the subsequent 15-day
period (to November 16, 1993).

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,
11000 Wilshire Boulevard, Room 9200,
Los Angeles, CA 90049

Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 3716,
14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230

Dated: August 23, 1993.

John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,

Executive Secretary.

(FR Doc. 93-21425 Filed 9-1-93; 8:45 am)