[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 3, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-18878]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: August 3, 1994]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
7 CFR Part 997
[Docket No. FV94-997-1IFR]
Assessment Obligation for 1994-95 Crop Year Peanuts Under 7 CFR
Part 997; Peanuts Not Subject to Peanut Marketing Agreement No. 146
AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.
ACTION: Interim final rule with request for comments.
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SUMMARY: This interim rule will implement Public Law 103-66. That law
requires the Department to impose an administrative assessment on
peanuts received or acquired for the account of handlers who are not
signatory (non-signatory handlers) to Peanut Marketing Agreement No.
146 (Agreement). The assessment rate of $.60 per net ton of farmers
stock peanuts for the 1994-95 crop year will be the same as the
administrative assessment established by the Department and applied to
handlers under the Agreement.
EFFECTIVE DATE: The interim final rule is effective August 3, 1994.
Comments which are received by September 2, 1994 will be considered
prior to any finalization of this interim final rule.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments
concerning this rule. Comments must be sent in triplicate to the Docket
Clerk, Fruit and Vegetable Division, AMS, USDA, P.O. Box 96456, Room
2523-S, Washington, D.C. 20090-6456, FAX (202) 720-5698. Comments
should reference the docket number and the date and page number of this
issue of the Federal Register and will be available for public
inspection in the Office of the Docket Clerk during regular business
hours.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Richard Lower or Mark Slupek, Marketing Order
Administration Branch, Fruit and Vegetable Division, AMS, USDA, Room
2523-S, P.O. Box 96456, Washington, D.C. 20090-6456; telephone: (202)
720-2020, FAX (202) 720-5698.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This interim final rule is issued pursuant
to the requirements of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937
(Act), as amended (7 U.S.C. 601-674), and as further amended December
12, 1989, Public Law 101-220, section 4(1), (2), 103 Stat. 1878, and
August 10, 1993, Public Law 103-66, section 8b(b)(1), 107 Stat. 312.
The Department is issuing this interim final rule in conformance
with Executive Order 12866.
This rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12778, Civil
Justice Reform. The Department will establish a 1994-95 crop year
assessment rate applicable to non-signatory handlers effective July 1,
1994-June 30, 1995. Segregation 1 farmers stock peanuts received or
acquired by non-signatory handlers during that crop year will be
subject to the assessment. This rule will not preempt any State or
local laws, regulations, or policies, unless they present an
irreconcilable conflict with this rule. There are no administrative
procedures which must be exhausted prior to any judicial challenge to
the provisions of this interim final rule.
Pursuant to requirements set forth in the Regulatory Flexibility
Act (RFA), the Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service
(AMS) has considered the economic impact of this action on small
entities.
The purpose of the RFA is to fit regulatory actions to the scale of
business subject to such actions in order that small businesses will
not be unduly or disproportionately burdened.
There are approximately 45 handlers of peanuts who have not signed
the Agreement and, thus, will be subject to the regulations proposed
herein. The Small Business Administration now defines small
agricultural service firms (13 CFR 121.601) as those having annual
receipts of less than $5,000,000 and small agricultural producers as
those whose annual receipts are less than $500,000. A majority of non-
signatory handlers and peanut producers may be classified as small
entities.
Since aflatoxin was found in peanuts in the mid-1960's, the
domestic peanut industry has sought to minimize aflatoxin contamination
in peanuts and peanut products. The Agreement was established in 1965
and plays a very important role in the industry's quality control
efforts. The Peanut Administrative Committee (Committee) was
established by the Agreement and works with the Department in
administering the marketing agreement program. Approximately 95 percent
of the area peanut crop is marketed by handlers who are signatory to
the Agreement. Requirements established pursuant to the Agreement
provide that farmers stock peanuts with visible Aspergillus flavus mold
(the principal source of aflatoxin) must be diverted to non-edible
uses. Each lot of shelled peanuts destined for edible channels must be
officially sampled and chemically tested for aflatoxin by the
Department or in laboratories approved by the Committee.
Public Law 101-220, enacted December 12, 1989, amended section 608b
of the Act to require that all peanuts handled by persons who have not
entered into the Agreement (non-signers) be subject to quality and
inspection requirements to the same extent and manner as are required
under the Agreement. Approximately 5 percent of the U.S. peanut crop is
marketed by non-signer handlers.
Under the non-signer provisions, no peanuts may be sold or
otherwise disposed of for human consumption if the peanuts fail to meet
the quality requirements of the Agreement. Regulations to implement
Pub. L. 101-220 were issued and made effective on December 4, 1990 [55
FR 49980] and amended several times thereafter, and are published in 7
CFR part 997. All such amendments were made to ensure that the non-
signer handling requirements remain consistent with modifications to
the handling requirements applied to signatory handlers under the
Agreement.
Public Law 103-66 (107 Stat. 312), enacted August 10, 1993,
provides for mandatory assessment of farmer's stock peanuts acquired by
non-signatory peanut handlers. Under this law, paragraph (b) of section
1001, of the Agricultural Reconciliation Act of 1993, specifies that:
(1) Any assessment (except indemnification assessments) imposed under
the Agreement on signatory handlers also shall apply to non-signatory
handlers, and (2) such assessment shall be paid to the Secretary.
This rule will add new permanent Sec. 997.51 Assessments to Part
997--Provisions Regulating the Quality of Domestically Produced Peanuts
Handled by Persons Not Subject to the Peanut Marketing Agreement.
Notice of the actual assessment rate established for each crop year
will be issued as a new section as an Implementing Regulation beginning
with Sec. 997.100 Assessment rate, and be sequentially numbered each
succeeding year.
The Committee meets in February or March each year and recommends
to the Secretary a per ton, administrative assessment of Segregation 1,
farmers stock peanuts received or acquired by signatory handlers for
the upcoming crop year. The crop year covers the 12-month period from
July 1 to June 30. The Committee met on March 16, 1994, and unanimously
recommended a $.60 administrative assessment per ton of 1994-95 crop
year Segregation 1 peanuts handled by those handlers who are signatory
to the Agreement. The Department has initiated rulemaking procedures to
implement such an administrative assessment on signatory handlers.
Therefore, pursuant to Pub. L. 103-66, this interim final rule
provides notice that the Department will assess non-signatory handlers
a $.60 administrative assessment per net ton of Segregation 1 farmers
stock peanuts for the 1994-95 crop year. The assessment will be based
on: (1) Tonnage reported on incoming inspection certificates of each
handler's Segregation 1 farmers stock peanuts received or acquired for
the handler's account and (2) tonnage reported on FV-117 ``Weekly
Report of Uninspected Farmers Stock Seed Peanuts Received for Custom
Seed Shelling.'' For example, in 1994-95, a handler who receives or
acquires 100,000 tons of Segregation 1 farmers stock peanuts will pay
an assessment of $60.
The assessment will be applied to peanuts intended for human
consumption and peanuts intended for non-human consumption outlets such
as seed, oilstock and animal feed. The assessment will be applied to
peanuts received or acquired for a handler's account, including the
handler's own production. Assessment will not be applied on Segregation
1 peanut lots received or acquired by a handler from other handlers or
from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) program received for non-
edible use, or lots received on behalf of an area association pursuant
to warehousing services (Sec. 997.20(a)).
The assessment will be applied, pro rata, on non-signatory handlers
who perform handling functions defined in Sec. 997.14. Handling is
defined as engaging in the receiving or acquiring, cleaning and
shelling, cleaning inshell, or crushing of peanuts and in the shipment
(except as a common or contract carrier of peanuts owned by another) or
sale of cleaned inshell or shelled peanuts or other activity causing
peanuts to enter the current of commerce. Handling does not include the
sale or delivery of peanuts by a producer to a handler or to an
intermediary person engaged in delivering peanuts to handlers and the
sale or delivery of peanuts by such intermediary to a handler.
Section 997.15 defines a non-signatory handler as any person who
handles peanuts, in a capacity other than that of a custom cleaner or
dryer, and assembler, a warehouse person or other intermediary between
the producer and the non-signatory handler.
Speculators, brokers, or other entities who take possession of
Segregation 1 farmers stock peanuts, submit such peanuts for incoming
inspection, and subsequently enter such peanuts into the channels of
commerce will pay assessments on such peanuts. Entities who receive or
acquire farmers stock peanuts for the purpose of custom seed shelling
will be assessed on the basis of Form FV-117 ``Weekly Report of
Uninspected Farmers Stock Seed Peanuts Received for Custom Seed
Shelling.'' Form FV-117 is currently required from such entities.
Producer/handlers who store peanuts of their own production (farm-
stored peanuts) will, at some point prior to further handling, obtain
incoming inspection on such peanuts and, at that time, pay the pro-rata
administrative assessment on such peanuts.
Only one administrative assessment will be applied to any lot of
farmers stock peanuts. Non-signatory and signatory handlers will not
pay an administrative assessment on a lot which they purchase from
speculators, brokers or other such entities who have already paid an
administrative assessment on the lot.
A crop year's original assessment could be increased by the
Secretary based on a similar increase applied by the Secretary on
signatory handlers. Such an increase will be applied on all peanuts
first handled by non-signatory handlers during the crop year in which
the increased assessment occurred.
Peanuts will be assessed based on the rate applicable to the crop
year in which the lot is presented for incoming inspection.
Also pursuant to Pub. L. 103-66, this rule will establish that non-
signatory handlers pay their administrative assessment to the
Secretary. The Secretary will bill non-signatory handlers on a periodic
basis determined by the Secretary. The non-signatory handler will be
responsible for remitting payment by the date specified. Payment in the
form of a personal check, cashier's check or money order will be
remitted to the Department. Audits of each handler's account may be
conducted by the Department to reconcile incoming, farmers stock volume
received or acquired and assessments paid.
Violation of the non-signer regulations may result in a penalty in
the form of an assessment by the Secretary equal to 140 percent of the
support price for quota peanuts. The support price for quota peanuts is
determined under 7 U.S.C. 1445c-3 for the crop year during which the
violation occurs.
The established administrative assessment rate will impose some
additional costs on non-signatory handlers. However, the costs will be
in the form of uniform assessments on all handlers who are not
signatory to the Agreement.
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1988 (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35), the information collection requirements that are contained
in this rule have been previously approved by the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) and have been assigned OMB No. 0581-0163.
Based on available information, the Administrator of the AMS has
determined that the issuance of this interim final rule will not have a
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553, it is also found and determined that,
upon good cause, it is impracticable, unnecessary, and contrary to the
public interest to give preliminary notice prior to putting this rule
into effect, and that good cause exists for not postponing the
effective date of this action until 30 days after publication in the
Federal Register because: (1) Public Law 103-66 requires the Department
to impose an administrative assessment on peanuts received or acquired
for the account of handlers who are not signatory (non-signatory
handlers) to Peanut Marketing Agreement No. 146 (Agreement); (2) the
peanut crop year begins July 1, and to achieve the intended purpose of
the law this action should be taken promptly; and (3) this rule
provides a 30-day comment period and any comments received will be
considered prior to finalization of this rule.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 997
Food grades and standards, Peanuts, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements.
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, 7 CFR part 997 is
amended as follows:
PART 997--PROVISIONS REGULATING THE QUALITY OF DOMESTICALLY
PRODUCED PEANUTS HANDLED BY PERSONS NOT SUBJECT TO THE PEANUT
MARKETING AGREEMENT
1. The authority citation for 7 CFR part 997 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 601-674.
2. A new center heading and Sec. 997.51 are added to read as
follows:
Assessments
Sec. 997.51 Assessments.
Each first handler shall pay to the Secretary, with respect to
peanuts received or acquired by the handler, including the handler's
own production, an administrative assessment as approved by the
Secretary. The rate of assessment shall be the same as the
administrative assessment approved by the Secretary and applied to
signatory handlers under the Peanut Marketing Agreement No. 146. Such
administrative assessment shall be applied during the crop year
beginning July 1 and ending June 30 of the following year. Each
handler's pro rata share shall be the rate of assessment fixed by the
Secretary per net ton of farmers stock peanuts received or acquired,
other than those peanuts described in Sec. 997.20(a)(1) and (2). During
the crop year, the Secretary may increase the rate of assessment if
such an increase is established under the Agreement.
3. A new center subpart heading and section 997.100 are added to
read as follows:
Implementing Regulation
Sec. 997.100 Assessments.
For the 1994-95 crop year, the administrative assessment is $0.60
per net ton of farmers stock peanuts received or acquired by each first
handler.
Dated: July 28, 1994.
Robert C. Keeney,
Deputy Director, Fruit and Vegetable Division.
[FR Doc. 94-18878 Filed 8-2-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-02-P
