Commodity Credit Corporation March 9, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule implements the Pima Agriculture Cotton Trust Fund (Agriculture Pima Trust) and the Agriculture Wool Apparel Manufacturers Trust Fund (Agriculture Wool Trust) Fund established in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (Farm Bill). The Agriculture Pima Trust provides annually for one payment, called the Pima Cotton Payments. The Agriculture Wool Trust provides annually for four payments. The first payment under the Agriculture Wool Trust is currently administered by the Department of Commerce's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA), and is called the Grants to Manufacturers of Certain Worsted Wool Fabrics. This program is being transferred from OTEXA to the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary), who will administer the payment for the 2015-2019 calendar years, and will be called Payments to Manufacturers of Certain Worsted Wool Fabrics. The second payment is called Monetization of the Wool TRQ. The Farm Bill requires the Secretary to determine a monetary amount equivalent to what a person would have saved if OTEXA's Wool Tariff Rate Quota program (Wool TRQ) were still in effect. This payment will be based on OTEXA's Wool Tariff Rate Quota program, which terminated at the end of calendar year 2014. The Monetization of the Wool TRQ will be administered by the Secretary for the 2015-2019 calendar years. The third payment is called the Wool Yarn, Wool Fiber, and Wool Top Duty Compensation Payment. Payments are made to processors of wool yarn, wool fiber, and wool top to compensate them for termination of the suspension of import duties on such wool. This payment will be administered by the Secretary for the 2015-2019 calendar years. The fourth payment is called the Refund of Duties Paid on Imports of Certain Wool Products. This program is currently administered by the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through calendar year 2015. The program will be transferred in calendar year 2016 to the Secretary, who will administer the program for the 2016-2019 calendar years. Regulations for the fourth payment will be published at a later date.