§7234 Repayment of Loans

Summary

Allows producers to repay marketing loans for wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, and oilseeds at the lower of two rates: the loan rate plus interest, or a rate the Secretary sets to cut loan forfeitures, lower government stockpiles and storage costs, and let U.S. crops be marketed freely and competitively at home and abroad. For upland cotton and rice, repayment is the lower of the loan rate plus interest or the prevailing world market price adjusted to U.S. quality and location. For extra long staple cotton, repayment is the loan rate plus interest. The Secretary must make a formula to set the prevailing world market price for each loan commodity and must announce that price periodically. For upland cotton, until July 31, 2003, the world price must be further adjusted if the adjusted world price is less than 115% of the loan rate and a specific Friday-through-Thursday average U.S. cotton price (Middling 13/32-inch, delivered C.I.F. Northern Europe) is higher than the average of the five lowest-priced growths (the “Northern Europe price”). The Secretary may use U.S. export share, export sales and shipments, and other data to adjust the price, but the increase cannot be more than the difference between that lowest-priced U.S. growth average and the Northern Europe price.