[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 66 (Friday, April 5, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Page 16447]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-8269]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

[NAFTA-05624]


AVX Corporation; Vancouver, WA; Notice of Negative Determination 
Regarding Application for Reconsideration

    By application dated January 25, 2002, the company requested 
administrative reconsideration of the Department's negative 
determination regarding eligibility to apply for North American Free 
Trade Agreement-Transitional Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA-TAA), 
applicable to workers and former workers of the subject firm. The 
denial notice was signed on January 3, 2002, and was published in the 
Federal Register on January 11, 2002 (67 FR 1511).
    Pursuant to 29 CFR 90.18(c) reconsideration may be granted under 
the following circumstances:
    (1) If it appears on the basis of facts not previously considered 
that the determination complained of was erroneous;
    (2) If it appears that the determination complained of was based on 
a mistake in the determination of facts not previously considered; or
    (3) If in the opinion of the Certifying Officer, a 
misinterpretation of facts or of the law justified reconsideration of 
the decision.
    The denial of NAFTA-TAA for workers engaged in activities related 
to the production of electric capacitors at AVX Corporation, Vancouver, 
Washington was based on the finding that criteria (3) and (4) of the 
group eligibility requirements of paragraph (a)(1) of section 250 of 
the Trade Act, as amended, were not met. The company did not shift 
production of electric capacitors to Canada or Mexico and did not 
import electric capacitors from Canada or Mexico. The predominant cause 
of worker separations at the subject plant was a domestic shift of 
production to an affiliated facility.
    The petitioner alleges that the company did not shift plant 
production of electric capacitors to Mexico, but that production 
remained in the United States. The petitioner further indicates that 
subject plant activities of testing, visual inspecting, packaging, 
quality assurance and shipping functions were shifted to Mexico.
    The shift in activities related to testing, visual inspecting, 
packaging, quality assurance and shipping functions from the subject 
plant to Mexico is irrelevant, since those worker groups are engaged in 
support activities (non-production) rather than actual production of 
electric capacitors. Those workers are separately identifiable from the 
workers engaged in the production of electric capacitors.
    The workers engaged in activities related to testing, visual 
inspecting, packaging, quality assurance and shipping at the subject 
firm do not produce an article within the meaning of section 250(a) of 
the Trade Act, as amended.

Conclusion

    After review of the application for reconsideration and 
investigative findings, I conclude that there has been no error or 
misinterpretation of the law or of the facts which would justify 
reconsideration of the Department of Labor's prior decisions. 
Accordingly, the application is denied.

    Signed at Washington, DC this 25th day of March 2002.
Edward A. Tomchick,
Director, Division of Trade Adjustment Assistance.
[FR Doc. 02-8269 Filed 4-4-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-M