Amendment to the Tobacco Marketing Quota Regulations

This rule adopts as final, with minor technical changes, the proposed rule published in the Federal Register on March 21, 1997 (62 FR 13546). The rule amends the tobacco marketing quota regulations to: Provide for making quota ``inequity adjustments'' on a ``common ownership unit'' basis rather than strictly on a ``farm'' basis; eliminate unduly restrictive deadlines for the mailing of certain quota notices; permit, for burley and flue-cured tobacco, disaster transfers to be made by cash lessees, from cash rented farms, without the owner's signature; provide greater flexibility in the setting of penalty amounts for burley and flue-cured tobacco producer violations; eliminate a provision that requires yearly publication in the Federal Register of routine penalty computations; remove regulations governing the 1994-calendar year only ``domestic marketing assessment'', which was applicable to the use by certain cigarette manufacturers of set percentages of domestic tobacco; codify certain routine statutory provisions concerning, and penalties related to, setting burley and flue-cured tobacco national marketing quotas; and add several technical changes, including changes to reflect a recent reorganization of the Department of Agriculture.