Qorvo Wins FTZ Approval, But Not for Its Full Chip Plan

FTZ News: Qorvo US, Inc. got a partial sign-off from the Foreign-Trade Zones Board to make semiconductor wafers, modules and chips at its Greensboro, North Carolina, plant, inside Subzone 230K. The board did not clear the whole request. Colin Agostisi, executive secretary, signed the decision September 29. It was filed October 1 at 8:45 a.m. and ran October 2 in the Federal Register, document 2026-20255, at 91 FR 62689, under docket B-8-2026.

The company put the notice in on January 15. The board took it up under 15 CFR part 400 and asked for comment in a January 22 notice, 91 FR 2725. Comments were due March 3. Elizabeth Whiteman, then executive secretary, signed that earlier filing.

Qorvo wants to turn out telecommunications inductors, switch and amplifier modules, printed-circuit-board antennas, ceramic filters, capacitors, resistors, thermistors, boards, connectors, diodes, transistors, light-emitting diodes, frequency and signal control units, dice controllers, gallium arsenide and gallium nitride amplifier wafers, and radio-frequency integrated circuits. Those finished goods carry no duty. Foreign parts in the filing, duty-free up to 5 percent, include packaging, amplifiers, filters, test boards and wafers of 4, 6 and 8 inches. Inputs hit by section 1702, section 232 or section 301 duties have to come in under privileged-foreign status. So do polyethylene bags caught by an antidumping or countervailing-duty order.

The September 29 letter told Qorvo that part of the plan still needs a closer look. What the board did approve sits under the FTZ Act and section 400.14. Printed circuit boards can be used as foreign-status components for two years, and no longer. The notice does not name the piece still under review./.