Tobacco quota

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In the United States, Tobacco quotas (poundage quotas, and in some cases acreage allotments) were a supply control feature of federal price support for tobacco. Burley tobacco was subject to marketing quotas and flue-cured tobacco was subject to marketing quotas and acreage allotments. Tobacco quota owners (owners of farmland to which quota is assigned) voted every three years on whether or not to continue with price support (through no-net-cost loans) and marketing quotas. Producers of several minor tobaccos (including Maryland (type 32), Pennsylvania cigar-filler (type 41), and Connecticut Valley cigar-binder (types 51-52)) had disapproved federal support. The national marketing quota (basic quota) was calculated according to a formula specified by law that included consideration of intended purchases by domestic manufacturers, average exports over the preceding three years, and reserve stock requirements. The effective quota was the basic quota plus and minus temporary adjustments for allowable previous year under and over marketings. The Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-357, Title VI) ended tobacco quotas for 2005 crop and subsequent years.

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

A farm's acreage allotment, under provisions of permanent commodity price support law, is its share, based on its previous production, of the national acreage needed to produce sufficient supplies of a particular crop. Under the 2002 farm bill, acreage allotments are not applicable to the covered commodities, peanuts, or sugar. Subsequently, allotments and quotas and price support for tobacco were eliminated beginning in 2005.

The Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act is a component of the American Jobs Creation Act, passed in the United States in October 2004. The main component of the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act is the Tobacco Transition Payment Program, which was formalized by the United States Department of Agriculture in February 2005.

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Blunt (cigar)

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Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), was a United States Supreme Court decision that dramatically increased the regulatory power of the federal government. It remains as one of the most important and far-reaching cases concerning the New Deal, and it set a precedent for an expansive reading of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause for decades to come. The goal of the legal challenge was to end the entire federal crop support program by declaring it unconstitutional.

Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938

The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 was legislation in the United States that was enacted as an alternative and replacement for the farm subsidy policies, in previous New Deal farm legislation, that had been found unconstitutional. The act revived the provisions in the previous Agriculture Adjustment Act, with the exception that the financing of the law's programs would be provided by the Federal Government and not a processor's tax, and was also enforced as a response to the success of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936.

Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996

The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, known informally as the Freedom to Farm Act, the FAIR Act, or the 1996 U.S. Farm Bill, was the omnibus 1996 farm bill that, among other provisions, revises and simplifies direct payment programs for crops and eliminates milk price supports through direct government purchases.

Agricultural Act of 1970

In United States federal agriculture legislation, the Agricultural Act of 1970 initiated a significant change in commodity support policy.

Agriculture and Food Act of 1981

The Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 was the 4-year omnibus farm bill that continued and modified commodity programs through 1985. It set specific target prices for 4 years, eliminated rice allotments and marketing quotas, lowered dairy supports, and made other changes affecting a wide range of USDA activities. The next year this farm bill was amended to freeze the dairy price support level and mandate loan rates and acreage reserve provisions for the 1983 crops. Again in 1984, amendments were adopted to freeze target prices, authorize paid land diversion for feed grains, upland cotton, and rice, and provide a wheat payment-in-kind program for 1984.

Dairy and Tobacco Adjustment Act of 1983

The Dairy and Tobacco Adjustment Act of 1983 is a United States federal law.

In the United States the Tobacco Price Support Program used a combination of marketing quotas and nonrecourse loans to keep prices stable and higher than they would be otherwise. The tobacco quota limited production in order to raise prices. Nonrecourse loans allowed producers to hold tobacco stocks for long periods in order to balance supplies with market demand conditions.

The U.S. Sugar program is the federal commodity support program that maintains a minimum price for sugar, authorized by the 2002 farm bill to cover the 2002-2007 crops of sugar beets and sugarcane.

The Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment Program (DCP) of the USDA provides payments to eligible producers on farms enrolled for the 2002 through 2007 crop years. There are two types of DCP payments – direct payments and counter-cyclical payments. Both are computed using the base acres and payment yields established for the farm.

A poundage quota, also called a marketing quota, is a quantitative limit on the amount of a commodity that can be marketed under the provisions of a permanent law. Once a common feature of price support programs, this supply control mechanism ended with the quota buyouts for peanuts in 2002 and tobacco in 2004.

No Net Cost Tobacco Act of 1982

The No Net Cost Tobacco Act of 1982 required that the Tobacco Price Support Program operate at no net cost to taxpayers, other than for the administrative expenses common to all price support programs. To satisfy this mandate, sellers and buyers of tobacco were assessed equally to build a capital account that was drawn upon to reimburse the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) for any losses of principal and interest resulting from nonrecourse loan operations. Other provisions of this law provided for reducing the level of support for tobacco and made various modifications to the marketing quota and acreage allotment programs. No net cost assessments ended when price support was terminated after the 2004 crop.

The 2002 farm bill replaced the longtime (65-year) support program for peanuts with a framework identical in structure to the program for the so-called covered commodities. The three components of the Peanut Price Support Program are fixed direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, and marketing assistance loans or loan deficiency payments (LDPs). The peanut poundage quota and the two-tiered pricing features of the old program were repealed. Only historic peanut producers are eligible for the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP). All current production is eligible for marketing assistance loans and LDPs. Previous owners of peanut quota were compensated through a buy-out program at a rate of 55¢/lb. ($1,100/ton) over a 5-year period.

Food and Agriculture Act of 1977

The United States Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 was an omnibus farm bill. The S. 275 legislation was passed by the 95th U.S. Congressional session and signed into law by the 39th President of the United States Jimmy Carter on September 29, 1977.

Flue-cured tobacco

Flue-cured tobacco is a type of cigarette tobacco. Along with burley tobacco, it accounts for more than 90% of US tobacco production. Flue-cured farming is centered in North Carolina. Production was limited by national marketing quotas and acreage allotments. It was eligible for nonrecourse price support loans until 2005, when the quota buyout program ended these programs.

Agricultural Act of 1948

The Agricultural Act of 1948 was enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on July 3, 1948. The legislation revised and authorized several aspects of U.S. agricultural policy and agricultural subsidies.

Connecticut shade tobacco

Connecticut shade tobacco is a tobacco grown under shade in the Connecticut River valley of the U.S. states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and southernmost Vermont, and is used primarily for binder and wrapper for premium cigars.

References

Congressional Research Service Public think tank

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), known as Congress's think tank, is a public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works primarily and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis.