(a) Agriculture wool trust—(1) Establishment. The Agriculture Wool Trust has been established to provide funding for payments under this part.

(2) Purpose. The purpose of the Agriculture Wool Trust is to reduce the injury to domestic manufacturers resulting from tariffs on wool fabric that are higher than tariffs on certain apparel articles made of wool fabric.

(3) Funding availability. Not more than $30,000,000 will be available annually for payments authorized under this part.

(4) Definitions. As used in this subpart:

Agriculture Wool Trust means the Agriculture Wool Apparel Manufacturers Trust Fund.

U.S. means the United States of America.

CCC means the Commodity Credit Corporation.

FAS means the Foreign Agricultural Service.

HTS means the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.

Secretary means the Secretary of Agriculture.

TRQ means Tariff Rate Quota.

(b) Provisions common to this part—(1) Affidavits. FAS shall annually, not later than February 15 of the year of the applicable payment, make affidavits available on the FAS Web site, which can be found at http://www.fas.usda.gov/. Affidavits must be submitted electronically to: [email protected].

(2) Filing deadline. Any person filing an affidavit under this part for a particular year must file the affidavit for such calendar year, during calendar years 2019 through 2023, not later than March 1 of such year.

(3) Required information. In addition to information required in §§1471.11, 1471.13, and 1471.14, as applicable, every person applying for a payment under this part must provide the following information applicable to the year for which a payment is sought:

(i) The current company name, address, contact, phone number of the person;

(ii) The name and address of each plant or location of the person in the year immediately preceding the payment; and

(iii) A W-9 providing the Federal tax identification number of the person (if the information required by Form W-9 has changed since the previous application).

(4) Every person claiming a payment must provide Standard Form 1199A, a direct deposit sign-up form, to facilitate any transfer of funds (if the information required by Form 1199A has changed since the previous application).

(5) Affirmation. A person filing an affidavit under this part must affirm that “all information contained in the application is complete and correct and that the information does not contain a false claim, statement, or representation.”

(6) Document retention. All persons receiving a payment under this part must maintain all pertinent documentation for three years after the year of receipt of the payment.

(7) False statements. Persons providing false or fraudulent claims or making materially false statements or representations are subject to civil or criminal penalties pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 1001.

(8) Confidential information. Specific business information provided in affidavits that is marked “business confidential” will be protected from disclosure to the full extent permitted by law.

(9) Review of affidavits. Affidavits will be reviewed to determine whether they are complete and responsive to the content and form of affidavit requirements in this part.

(10) Finality of determination by the Secretary. A determination by the Secretary about a payment under this part shall be final and is not subject to appeal or protest.

(11) Timing of payments. A payment for which a person eligible under this part will be disbursed in each of calendar years 2015 through 2019 not later than April 15 of the applicable year.

(12) Proration and sequester. Payments covered by this part will be subject to proration in the event that insufficient funds exist in the Agriculture Wool Trust during the year of the payment, and will be subject to sequester, if required by law.

(13) HTS subheadings. All references to subheadings of the HTS in this part are to the subheadings as described in the HTS in 2014.

[80 FR 12327, Mar. 9, 2015, as amended at 81 FR 81659, Nov. 18, 2016; 85 FR 6421, Feb. 5, 2020]