Special Circumstances - Reduced Review Procedures

During the review of applications for manufacturing authority within existing zones or subzones, an applicant may request a review under the special circumstances discussed below. Based on this request, or based on the FTZ examiner's own initiative, the examiner will review the circumstances to determine whether the case qualifies for a reduced review procedure under 15 CFR Part 400.32(b)(1). Under this procedure, the examiner would send their report and recommendation directly to the Commerce Secretary's alternate on the FTZ Board for review and signature. This may reduce the processing time of an application by up to a month. To be eligible, the application must meet one of the following criteria:

1. Have the following similarities to a recent¹ Board approval:
   • the same finished products as those already approved
   • the same foreign components
   • no new inverted tariff situations
   • a similar sourcing and U.S. value added situation
   • a similar international competitive situation
2. Request authority only for export activity.
3. Not request authority for the election of non-privileged status merchandise. The application would involve no inverted tariffs or significant scrap savings.

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¹ "Recent" would normally be interpreted as those approved in the past 3 years.