DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
                           Foreign-Trade Zones Board

                               [Docket No. 54-84]

                                  49 FR 48581

                               December 13, 1984


Foreign-Trade Zone 29 -- Louisville, KY; Application for Subzone, General
Electric Appliance Park Plant

TEXT: An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the Louisville and Jefferson County Riverport Authority,
grantee of Foreign-Trade Zone 29, requesting special-purpose subzone status
for the home appliance manufacturing plant of General Electric Corporation
in Jefferson County, Kentucky, adjacent to the Louisville 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 December 7, 1984.
The applicant is authorized to make this proposal under @ 65.530(b) of the
Kentucky Revised Statutes.

   The proposed subzone will be at General Electric's Appliance Park plant,
which covers 942 acres on Fegenbush Lane in Jefferson County. The facility
employs 14,000 persons and is used to produce household appliances such as
refrigerators, dishwashers, dryers, electric ranges and room air
conditioners. Of the thousands of parts used in the production process,
some 370 are purchased from foreign sources, including drive tubes, shafts,
brake bands, solenoids, and springs. Raw steel is sourced domestically.
Most of the products are sold domestically, though GE plans to increase
its export activity. 

   Zone procedures will allow GE to avoid duty payments on the foreign
components used in its exports. On its domestic sales, the company would be
able to take advantage of the same duty rates available to importers of
the finished products, who have doubled their share of the U.S. market in
the past 4 years to 12 percent. The duty rates on the components mentioned
above range from 6.2 to 7.1 percent whereas the duty rates for washing
machines, dishwashers and electric ranges are 4.4, 4.3 and 1.5 percent.
These savings will help GE improve its cost competitiveness in relation to
production facilities abroad. 

   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: John J. Da Ponte, Jr. (Chairman), Director, Foreign-
Trade Zones Staff, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 20230; John F.
Nelson, District Director, U.S. Customs Service, North Central Region, 6th
Floor, Plaza Nine Bldg., 55 Erieview Plaza, Cleveland, OH 44114; and
Colonel Dwayne G. Lee, District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District
Louisville, P.O. Box 59, Louisville, KY 40201.

   Comments concerning the proposed subzone are invited in writing from
interested persons and organizations. They should be addressed below and
postmarked on or before January 21, 1985.

   A copy of the application is available for public inspection at each of
the following locations:


U.S. Department of Commerce District Office,
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse Bldg., Rm. 636,
Louisville, KY 40202.


Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Rm. 1529,
14th and Pennsylvania, NW.,
Washington, D.C. 20230. 

   Dated: November 10, 1984.


John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,

   Executive Secretary.  
[FR Doc. 84-32523 Filed 12-12-84; 8:45 am]

   BILLING CODE 3510-DS-M