Applications, hearings, determinations, etc.: California,

[Federal Register: January 27, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 17)]

[Notices]

[Page 4068-4069]

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:fr27ja99-20]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Foreign-Trade Zones Board

[Docket 2-99]

Foreign-Trade Zone 202--Los Angeles, California, Expansion of Manufacturing Authority--Subzone 202A, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company Facility (Pharmaceuticals), Los Angeles, CA

An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the Board) by the Board of Harbor Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles, grantee of FTZ 202, requesting authority on behalf of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M), to expand the scope of manufacturing authority under zone procedures at the 3M facility in Los Angeles, California. It was formally filedon January 11, 1999.

Subzone 202A was approved by the Board in 1997 at the 3M facility located at 19901 Nordhoff Street, Los Angeles, California. Authority was granted for the manufacture of solid-dose pharmaceutical products and controlled-dose inhalers using the following imported materials: aluminum bottles, valve stems for aerosol, valve retaining cups, plastic actuator assemblies for aerosol, orphenadrine citrate, flacanide acetate, methenamine hippurate, pirbuterol acetate, and ethyl oleate (Board Order 916, 62 FR 45394, 8/27/97).

3M is now proposing to expand the scope of authority for manufacturing activity conducted under FTZ procedures at Subzone 202A to include propellant for the controlled dosage pharmaceutical aerosol inhalers used for the treatment of bronchial asthma, bronchospasm, and vascular headaches.

[[Page 4069]]

The propellants are trichloro-fluoromethane/CFC-11 (HTSUS 2903.41.0000) and dichlorodifluoromethane/CFC-12 (HTSUS 2903.42.0000), both having a 3.7% duty rate.

Zone procedures would exempt the facility from Customs duty payments on the foreign components used in export activity. On its domestic sales, the company would be able to elect the duty rate that applies to finished products (duty-free) for the foreign components noted above. The application indicates that the savings from FTZ procedures will help improve 3M's international competitiveness.

The production, importation, exportation and sale of these propellants for exempted uses is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (60 FR 24970, 5/10/95). 3M has been granted annual essential use allowances for these propellants by the EPA. Zone procedures would not exempt 3M from any EPA requirements and they would not affect EPA's ability to regulate and monitor importation, exportation and sale of these substances.

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 March 29, 1999. Rebuttal comments in response to material submitted during the foregoing period may be submitted during the subsequent 15-day period to April 12, 1999.

A copy of the request will be available for public inspection at the following locations:

U.S. Department of Commerce, Export Assistance Center, 350 South Figueroa Street, Suite 172, Los Angeles, California 90071 Office of the Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room 3716, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20230

Dated: January 13, 1999. Dennis Puccinelli, Acting Executive Secretary.

[FR Doc. 99-1893Filed1-26-99; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P