DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

TA-W-41,859

KING PRESS
JOPLIN, MISSOURI

Negative Determination Regarding Eligibility
To Apply for Worker Adjustment Assistance

In accordance with Section 223 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19
USC 2273) as amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act
of 1988 (P. L. 100-418), the Department of Labor herein presents
the results of an investigation regarding certification of eli-
gibility to apply for worker adjustment assistance.
In order to make an affirmative determination and issue a
certification of eligibility to apply for adjustment assistance,
each of the group eligibility requirements of Section 222 of the
Act must be met:
(1) that a significant number or proportion of the workers in
the workers' firm, or an appropriate subdivision thereof,
have become totally or partially separated, or are
threatened to become totally or partially separated;

(2) that sales or production, or both, of the firm or sub-
division have decreased absolutely; and

(3) that increases of imports of articles like or directly
competitive with articles produced by the firm or ap-
propriate subdivision have contributed importantly to the
separations, or threat thereof, and to the absolute
decline in sales or production.

The investigation was initiated in response to a petition
received on July 22, 2002, filed on behalf of workers at King
Press, Joplin, Missouri. The workers produced printing presses.
The investigation revealed that criterion (3) has not been
met.
The subject firm does not import printing presses.
United States imports of "printing machinery; machines for
uses ancillary to printing; parts thereof" (HTS-8443) declined by
17.8 percent from January through September 2002 as compared with
imports for the same time period of 2001.
The investigation also revealed that at least half the subject
plant=s production was for the export market. A reduction of
company export sales was the prime reason for the declines in
sales, production and employment at the subject firm. Loss of
export sales associated with the declines at the subject plant
cannot be used as a basis for certification of this worker group.
A petition for NAFTA-Transitional Adjustment Assistance has
been filed on behalf of workers at the subject firm (NAFTA-6333).
A determination on that petition will be made concurrently with
this determination.
Conclusion
After careful review, I determine that all workers of King
Press, Joplin, Missouri, are denied eligibility to apply for
adjustment assistance under Section 223 of the Trade Act of 1974.
Signed in Washington, D. C. this 26th day of November 2002.

/s/ Elliott S. Kushner

_____________________________
ELLIOTT S. KUSHNER
Certifying Officer, Division of
Trade Adjustment Assistance