[Federal Register: June 16, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 115)]
[Notices]               
[Page 32276-32277]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr16jn99-103]

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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration
[TA-W-35,539]

 
Wendt Corp., Tonawanda, NY; Notice of Negative Determination 
Regarding Application for Reconsideration

    By application dated April 23, 1999, a petitioner requested 
administrative reconsideration of the Department's negative 
determination regarding eligibility for workers and former workers of 
the subject firm to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). The 
denial notice applicable to workers of Wendt Corporation located in 
Tonawanda, New York, was signed on March 15, 1999, and published in the 
Federal Register on May 11, 1999 (64 FR 25371).
    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 petition, filed on behalf of workers of the subject firm in 
Tonawanda, New York, producing scrap processing equipment was denied 
because the ``contributed importantly'' group eligibility requirement 
of section 222(3) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, was not met. 
The investigation revealed that Wendt Corporation did not import scrap 
metal processing equipment. Additionally, the articles produced by 
workers at the subject plant in Tonawanda, New York, are a customized 
product not imported into the U.S. in sufficient quantities to 
contribute importantly to worker separations.
    The petitioner also asserts that the company is importing scrap 
processing equipment. As learned during the investigation, the subject 
firm acts as an agent/distributor for some foreign producers of scrap 
processing equipment. That equipment, however, is not like or directly 
competitive with the articles produced at the workers firm.
    The petitioner attributes worker separations at Wendt to an 
increase in imports of steel scrap into the U.S. This allegation was 
made by petitioners in their January 11, 1999 petition, and was 
addressed in the April 19, 1999, TAA eligibility decision. Imports of 
scrap steel or steel cannot be considered as a basis for worker group 
certification under the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. The Department 
limits its investigation to the impact of imports of articles like or 
directly competitive with the products produced and sold by the 
workers' firm, which in this case is scrap processing equipment.

Conclusion

    After review of the application 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.


[[Page 32277]]


    Signed at Washington, DC, this 25th day of May 1999.
Grant D. Beale,
Acting Director, Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance.
[FR Doc. 99-15310 Filed 6-15-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-M