The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued a direct final rule that decreases the fees paid by businesses that import cotton and products that contain cotton. This decrease will come into effect on October 25th, 2021, unless the AMS receives a significant amount of negative by September 27th, 2021.
Currently, the assessment rate on imported cotton is s $1.1562 cents per kilogram. The revised assessment rate is $1.1136 cents per kilogram, a decrease of $0.0426 cents per kilogram. This reflects the increase in the average weighted price of Upland cotton received by U.S. farmers during the period January through December 2020, assuring both importers and domestic parties are assessed at the same rate.
AMS also amended the Import Assessment Table which identifies the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) classification numbers subject to this assessment, the corresponding conversion factor and the assessment rate for that HTS.
The revenue these assessments generate finances research and promotion programs aimed to boost consumer demand for upland cotton in the U.S. and international markets.
Please contact your Livingston account manager with questions.