DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Docket 19-94


Proposed Foreign-Trade Zone--Tri-City Area, TN/VA Application for
Subzone Status Siemens Industrial Automation Plant (Robotics/
Programmable Logic Controllers) Carter County, TN

    An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the Tri-City Airport Commission, requesting special-
purpose subzone status for the robotics/programmable logic controller
products manufacturing plant of Siemens Industrial Automation, Inc.
(SIA) (subsidiary of Siemens AG), located in Carter 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
May 10, 1994. The Tri-City Airport Commission has an application
pending with the Board for authority to establish a general-purpose
zone in the Tri-City area (58 FR 68115, 12-23-93).

    The SIA plant (104 acres) is located on Bill Garland Road, Carter
County, Tennessee, some 3 miles southeast of Johnson City. The facility
(620 employees) is used to produce and distribute robotics,
programmable logic controllers and other industrial automation
products, including fiber optic modules and instruments. Components and
materials purchased from abroad account for about 10 percent of
manufacturing material value and include: circuit boards, control
panels, transformers, converters, liquid crystal devices, instruments,
wire, cable connector, laser detectors, batteries, manuals and
software, integrated circuits, diodes, connectors, transistors,
capacitors, resistors power supplies, central processing units,
terminal blocks, modems switches keyboards., monitors, disk drives
printers (duty rate range: free-9.0%). According to company plans, the
facility will be expanded for use as the North American distribution
center for products made by SIA and for products made in the U.S. and
abroad by other Siemens AG affiliates.

    Zone procedures would exempt SIA from Customs duty payments on the
foreign components used in export production. On its domestic sales,
the company would be able to choose the duty rates that apply to
finished robotics/programmable logic controllers and related products
(3.9% to 9.0%) for the foreign components noted above. Customs duties
would be deferred on foreign products handled by the planned
distribution center and no duties would be paid if such products are
shipped to foreign markets. The application indicates that the savings
from zone procedures would help improve the SIA plant's international
competitiveness.

    In accordance with the Board's regulations, a member of the FTZ
Staff has been appointed examiner to investigate the application and
report to the Board.

    Public comment on the application is invited from interested
parties. Submissions (original and three copies) shall be addressed to
the Board's Executive Secretary at the address below. The closing
period for their receipt is July 18, 1994. Rebuttal comments in
response to material submitted during the foregoing period may be
submitted during the subsequent 15-day period (to August 1, 1994.)

    A copy of the application and the accompanying exhibits will be
available for public inspection at each of the following locations:

Office of the District Director, U.S. Customs Service, 150 North Royal,
Mobile, AL 36602.

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

    Dated: May 11, 1994.

John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.

[FR Doc. 94-12140 Filed 5-17-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P