Tobacco Warehouses

This final rule amends the regulations governing tobacco warehouses under the United States Warehouse Act (USWA). A proposed rule was published in the July 28, 1995, Federal Register (60 FR 38766). On June 20, 1997, a final rule covering only administrative changes to various commodity regulations was published in the Federal Register (62 FR 33539). Included in that final rule were two administrative changes which had been included in the tobacco warehouse proposed rule. Therefore, this final rule does not address those two administrative changes. In the proposed rule the Farm Service Agency (FSA) proposed excluding tobacco auction warehouses from USWA licensing requirements. This final rule adopts the position taken in the proposed rule and excludes those tobacco auction warehouses from licensure under the USWA. FSA has determined that it is not necessary to define ``warehouse'' as suggested in the proposed rule. The USWA, as amended (7 U.S.C. 241 et seq.), provides the Secretary of Agriculture with the discretion to establish a voluntary licensing program for public warehouses that store agricultural commodities under a bailment relationship with its depositors. Accordingly, the Secretary will exercise this discretion and through FSA will discontinue licensing tobacco auction warehouses under the USWA and all licenses issued to tobacco auction warehouses covered by this rule will be administratively canceled by Secretarial determination on October 31, 1999. October 31, 1999, was selected as the effective date so as to allow the affected tobacco auction warehouses sufficient notice and time to seek a State license or changes in State law to the extent that this rule may have an effect on warehouse rates. In addition, this final rule makes some minor ``housekeeping'' amendments.