Amendments to the Regulations for Cotton Warehouses Regarding the Delivery of Stored Cotton

Streszczenie

This final rule codifies the delivery standard for cotton stored in warehouses licensed under the United States Warehouse Act (USWA) and those warehouses issuing electronic warehouse receipts under the USWA (7 U.S.C. 241 et seq.). The final rule adopts, with minor changes based on public comments, a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on May 28, 1999, (64 FR 28938) and an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) published in the Federal Register on May 26, 1998 (63 FR 28488). The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is taking this action as the result of two U.S. District Court orders that remanded USDA to define the statutory phrase "without unnecessary delay" as set forth in the USWA. Concurrently, several segments of the cotton industry requested the implementation of a uniform national cotton shipping standard for the delivery of stored cotton. This final rule amends the regulations covering cotton to define the USWA statutory phrase "without unnecessary delay" as used in the USWA, and sets a standard for determining whether a warehouse operator delivers stored cotton timely by establishing a uniform cotton shipping standard for the delivery of stored cotton.