[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 149 (Wednesday, August 4, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Page 46916]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-19139]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Foreign-Trade Zones Board


Proposal for Minor Adjustments to Optional Alternative Site 
Framework

    The Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) Board is inviting public comment on a 
staff proposal to make minor adjustments to the Board's practice 
regarding the alternative site framework (ASF) adopted by the Board in 
December 2008 (74 FR 1170, 01/12/09; correction 74 FR 3987, 01/22/09) 
as an option for grantees to designate and manage their general-purpose 
FTZ sites. The proposed adjustments focus on eliminating the current 
requirement for ``activation limits'' on a site-specific basis and on 
allowing more flexibility regarding letters from jurisdictions within a 
grantee's proposed ``service area.''
    The first modification now proposed for the ASF is to eliminate the 
current requirement that each site of a participating zone be assigned 
a specific limit on the amount of space that can be activated with U.S. 
Customs and Border protection at that site. The original intent of 
site-specific activation limits was to help ensure compliance with the 
overall 2,000-acre activation limit for each general-purpose zone 
project. However, feedback from grantees indicates that the site-
specific activation limits are cumbersome in practice. This is 
particularly true because a grantee could face the burden of requesting 
changes to site-specific activation limits based on unforeseen 
circumstances in the future.
    In the period since the adoption of the ASF proposal, the FTZ Board 
staff has been developing a system (the Online FTZ Information System--
OFIS) to make available via the internet a range of information about 
every FTZ site. OFIS will include user accounts for grantees so that a 
grantee will be able to update the information regarding the amount of 
space activated at its sites as new activations (or deactivations) 
occur. Given that the OFIS functionality to display FTZ site 
information on the internet should be available for general use within 
a few months, the Board staff is now proposing that the tracking of 
activated acreage via OFIS be adopted as a substitute for the site-
specific activation limits. For any zone already approved under the ASF 
or with a pending application, the site-specific activation limits 
contained in the grantee's application to reorganize under the ASF 
would simply no longer apply (with only the standard 2,000-acre 
activation limit for each general-purpose zone continuing to govern 
overall activation within the zone).
    The second modification proposed by the FTZ Board staff is to allow 
more flexibility regarding application requirements for letters from 
jurisdictions (ordinarily counties) within the proposed service area. 
The Board staff recognizes the challenge that certain grantees have 
faced in obtaining ``support'' letters from jurisdictions, particularly 
given the standard language for such letters initially developed by the 
staff as part of the implementation of the ASF. As a result, the Board 
staff proposes to allow the submission in ASF reorganization 
applications of letters from the jurisdictions which simply (1) 
acknowledge that the appropriate official(s) of the jurisdiction is 
aware of the proposal to include the jurisdiction in the service area 
of the zone in question and (2) present any views of the official(s) of 
the jurisdiction on the proposal. This proposed modification also 
recognizes that the regulatory standard (15 CFR 400.23(a)) applicable 
to the review of such applications includes a range of criteria, one of 
which is the ``views of State and local public officials.''
    Public comment on these proposed adjustments to the FTZ Board's 
practice regarding the ASF is invited from interested parties. We ask 
that parties submit their comments electronically to [email protected] or 
fax a copy of their comments, addressed to the Board's Executive 
Secretary, to (202) 482-0002. We also ask that parties submit the 
original of their comments to the Board's Executive Secretary at the 
following address: U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 2111, 1401 
Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20230. The closing period for the 
receipt of public comments is September 3, 2010. Any questions about 
this request for comments may be directed to the FTZ Board staff at 
(202) 482-2862.

    Dated: July 30, 2010.
Andrew McGilvray,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2010-19139 Filed 8-3-10; 8:45 am]
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