USDA’s 2003 cotton import fee adjustment negligible

USDA’s 2003 cotton import fee adjustment negligible    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has lowered its fee for imported cotton, but the change is negligible compared to last year’s assessment.
   The current assessment on imported cotton is $0.00862 per kilogram of imported cotton. The new assessment, effective June 23, is $0.008267, a decrease of 4.1 percent.
   From January through December 2002, USDA collected about $24 million from the country’s 10,000 cotton importers. The revenues from the fee are used to fund the USDA’s Cotton Research and Promotion Program.
   “Should the volume of cotton products imported into the U.S. remain at the same level in 2003, one could expect the decreased assessment to generate about $23 million or a 4.1 percent decrease from 2002,” USDA said.