[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 87 (Tuesday, May 6, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23953-23954]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-11176]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Foreign-Trade Zones Board

[Docket 21-2003]


Foreign-Trade Zone 102--St. Louis, Missouri: Application For 
Foreign-Trade Subzone Status, Bayer CropScience (Agricultural Chemical 
Products); St. Louis, MO, Area

    An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board 
(the Board) by the St. Louis County Port Authority, grantee of FTZ 102, 
requesting special-purpose subzone status for the manufacturing 
facilities (agricultural chemical products) of Bayer CropScience LP, 
located in the St. Louis, Missouri area. The application was submitted 
pursuant to 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 April 29, 2003.
    The Bayer CropScience facilities are located at two sites (15.77 
acres, with up to eight buildings and 285,693 sq. ft. of enclosed 
space): Site  1 (13.5 acres; four buildings with 26,790 sq. 
ft.; possible expansion to include three additional buildings with 
160,000 sq. ft.)--located at 133 East Krauss Street in St. Louis; and 
Site  2 (2.27 acres; one building with 98,303 sq. ft.)--
located at 8921 Frost Avenue in Berkeley, Missouri. The facilities 
(approximately 50 full-time employees and contractors) produce 
agricultural chemical products, which Bayer CropScience intends to 
manufacture, test, package, and warehouse under FTZ procedures.
    The company's application lists a wide variety of general HTS 
categories as potential inputs or finished products for manufacturing 
under subzone procedures. However, the company is only seeking FTZ 
authority for the input or finished-product categories listed in the 
application to be used in the manufacturing of plant growth regulators, 
seed treatments, and pesticides, including but not limited to 
insecticides and fungicides. Bayer CropScience indicates that initial 
U.S. value added will range from 10 to 30 percent.
    The list of categories of imported parts and materials for possible 
use in the production, packaging, and distribution of plant growth 
regulators, seed treatments, and pesticides includes: Cane or beet 
sugar and sucrose; sugars, sugar syrups, artificial honey, and caramel; 
food preparations including protein concentrates and substances; oils 
and other products of coal tar; petroleum oils and mineral oils, or 
distillates; hydroxides and peroxides of sodium or potassium ; iron 
oxides and hydroxides; titanium oxides; hydrazine, hydroxylamine, other 
salts, inorganic bases, and metal oxides; fluorides, fluorosilicates, 
fluoroaluminates and other fluorine salts; chlorides, bromides, and 
iodides; dithianites and sulfoxylates; sulfites and thiosulfates; 
sulfates; phosphinates, phosphonates, phosphates, and polyphosphates; 
carbonates, peroxocarbonates and ammonium carbonate; silicates; borates 
and peroxoborates (perborates); salts of oxometallic or peroxometallic 
acids; other salts of inorganic acids or peroxoacids; radioactive 
chemical elements and radioactive isotopes, compounds, mixtures, and 
residues; compounds or rare-earth metals of yttrium or scandium; other 
inorganic compounds; halogenated derivatives of hydrocarbons; 
derivatives of hydrocarbons; acyclic alcohols and derivatives; phenols 
and phenol-alcohols, and their derivatives; ethers, ether-alcohols, 
ether-phenols, ether-alcohol-phenols, alcohol peroxides, ether 
peroxides, ketone peroxides, and their derivatives; epoxides, 
epoxyalcohols, epoxyphenols, and epoxyethers, and their derivatives; 
acetals and hemiacetals, and their derivatives; aldehydes and 
derivatives; ketones and quinones; saturated acyclic monocarboxylic 
acids and derivatives; unsaturated acyclic or cyclic monocarboxylic 
acids and derivatives; phosphoric esters, salts, and derivatives; 
esters of other inorganic salts, and their salts and derivatives; amine 
function compounds; oxygen-function amino-compounds; quartenary 
ammonium salts and hydroxides, lecithins, and other phosphoaminolipids; 
carboxyamide-function compounds and amide-function compounds of 
carbonic acid; carboxyimide-function and imine-function compounds; 
nitrile-function compounds; diazo-, azo-, or azoxy-compounds; organic 
derivatives of hydrazine or of hydroxylamine; compounds with other 
nitrogen function; organo-sulfur compounds; other organo-inorganic 
compounds; heterocyclic compounds, including with oxygen hetero-atoms 
only and nucleic acids and their salts; sulfonamides; glycosides and 
their salts, ethers, esters, and derivatives; sugars, chemically pure, 
other than sucrose, lactose, maltose, glucose, and fructose; sugar 
ether and sugar esters and their salts; other organic compounds; 
organic surface-active agents; lubricating preparations; artificial 
waxes and prepared waxes; gelatin and derivatives; dextrins and other 
modified starches; prepared glues and other prepared adhesives; 
activated carbon, activated natural mineral products, and animal black; 
insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, antisprouting 
products and plant-growth regulators, disinfectants, and similar 
products; reaction initiators and accelerators, and catalytic 
preparations; industrial monocarbolxylic fatty acids, acid oils from 
refining, and industrial fatty alcohols; prepared binders for foundry 
molds or cores, chemical products and preparations of the chemical or 
allied industries, and residual products of those industries; polymers 
of vinyl acetate or of vinyl esters, and other vinyl polymers; acrylic 
polymers in primary forms; polyacetals, other polyethers, and epoxide 
resins, polycarbonates, alkyd resins, polyallyl esters, and other 
polyesters, in primary forms; silicones in primary forms; petroleum 
resins, coumarone-indene resins, polyterpenes, polysulfides, 
polysulfones and other products, in primary forms; cellulose and its 
chemical derivatives; natural polymers and modified natural polymers in 
primary forms; ion-exchangers based on polymers; self-adhesive plates, 
sheets, film, foil, tape, strip and other flat shapes, of plastic; 
other plates, sheets, film, foil, and strip, of plastics; other 
articles of plastic; articles for the conveyance or packing of goods, 
of plastics, and stoppers, lids, caps, and other clotures, of plastics; 
other articles of vulcanized rubber; carboys, bottles, flasks, jars, 
pots, vials, ampoules, preserving jars, stoppers, lids, and other 
containers or closures of glass; aluminum foil; magnesium and articles 
thereof; stoppers, caps, and lids; and taps, cocks, valves, and similar 
appliances. Current duty rates for these input materials range up to 
9.6 percent.
    Zone procedures would exempt Bayer CropScience from Customs duty 
payments on foreign components used in export production. On its 
domestic sales, Bayer CropScience would be able to defer duty payments, 
and to choose the lower duty rate that applies to the listed finished-
product categories (duty-free to 7.8 percent) for the foreign inputs 
listed above, among others. Bayer CropScience would be able to avoid 
duty on foreign inputs which become scrap/waste, estimated at less than 
2 percent of imported inputs. The application also indicates that Bayer 
CropScience may benefit from savings derived from zone-to-zone 
transfers of merchandise and from simplification of the company's 
import and export procedures. All of the above-cited savings from zone 
procedures could

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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 one of the following addresses:
    1. Submissions Via Express/Package Delivery Services: Foreign-
Trade-Zones Board, U.S. Department of Commerce, Franklin Court 
Building--Suite 4100W, 1099 14th St. NW., Washington, DC 20005; or
    2. Submissions Via the U.S. Postal Service: Foreign-Trade-Zones 
Board, U.S. Department of Commerce, FCB--Suite 4100W, 1401 Constitution 
Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20230.
    The closing period for their receipt is July 7, 2003. Rebuttal 
comments in response to material submitted during the foregoing period 
may be submitted during the subsequent 15-day period to July 21, 2003.
    A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be 
available for public inspection at the Office of the Foreign-Trade 
Zones Board's Executive Secretary at address Number 1 listed above, and 
at the U.S. Department of Commerce Export Assistance Center, 8235 
Forsyth Blvd., Suite 520, St. Louis, MO 63105.

    Dated: April 29, 2003.
Dennis Puccinelli,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 03-11176 Filed 5-5-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P