areas prior to public hearings in such areas. Also a field study was conducted of man-hour requirements for hoeing, hoe trimming, and blocking and thinning sugarbeets under various field conditions and to appraise the effectiveness of the designated piecework operations and rate structure and to obtain data to be used in developing subsequent wage determinations. Payments to producers Payments are made to domestic producers of sugarbeets and sugarcane who comply with certain requirements with respect to proportionate shares (acreage allotments), nonemployment of child labor, payment of fair and reasonable wages and, in the case of processor-producers, the payment of fair and reasonable prices for sugarbeets or sugarcane purchased from other producers. Pursuant to title III of the Sugar Act of 1948, conditional payments on the 1961 crops totaling $77,451,597 were made to about 60,968 sugarbeet and sugarcane producers in 23 States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. International Sugar Agreement During fiscal year 1962 five more nations-India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Paraguay, and Italy-ratified the International Sugar Agreement. Two additional countries, Argentina and Upper Volta, were approved for membership but had not deposited their instruments of accession with the depository government at the close of the fiscal year. World sugar prices (as quoted by the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange) were extremely erratic during the fiscal year and averaged well below the minimum of the range established by the International Sugar Council as a desirable price level for sugar. The Council's efforts to stabilize prices were nullified because the export quotas determined by the Council were flouted by the largest exporter, Cuba, and by several eastern European exporting countries. World sugar prices improved substantially after enactment of the U.S. Sugar Act amendments which included provision for a global quota. The United Nations called an International Sugar Conference September 12, 1961, at Geneva, Switzerland, to examine the operations of the agreement and to consider changes in quotas and prices Council members might propose for the remaining 2 years of the agreement. Because of unreasonable demands by Cuba, the Council suspended quotas for the remaining 2 years of the agreement, following which the Conference was adjourned on December 15, 1961. Prior to the aforesaid Conference a preparatory committee, of which the United States is a member, worked for more than a year developing basic information on world production and consumption trends as well as the operations of the agreement and its effect on stabilizing world prices. Following adjournment of the Council session the committee began working in preparation for a renegotiation conference to be held in 1963. Among the matters that will receive special attention at the forthcoming conference are the effects of sugar tariff actions by the European Economic Community as well as the impact of the new U.S. Sugar Act, particularly the accessibility that numerous countries now have to the U.S. market. Many countries that formerly imported all of their sugar requirements are now energetically developing a program of sugar production in order to become self-sufficient and thus save foreign exchange. This poses a serious problem for those countries dependent on the exportation of sugar. Studies, surveys, and reports During the fiscal year 1962 a report was completed of costs, returns, profits, investment, and man-hour requirements in sugarcane production and sugar processing for Florida covering the crops from 1956 to 1958. Field work was completed for a similar study of growing sugarcane and processing sugar in Hawaii in 1959, 1960, 1961. Summary of a study of sugarbeets and beet sugar, 1957-59 crops, was completed and preparation of the report was well advanced. A study was made of technical procedures being followed at Puerto Rican sugar mills to determine their adequacy for effecting a fair and equitable distribution of sugar between sugarcane processors and producers. Precrop instructional meetings with sugarcane processors were extended to Florida for the first time to insure a common understanding of sampling, testing, and reporting procedures for sugarcane mills. These sessions were particularly beneficial to personnel of newly operating mills. Statistical Bulletin No. 293, "Sugar Statistics and Related Data Compiled in the Administration of the U.S. Sugar Acts," was issued in September 1961. Sugar Reports, the monthly publication of the Sugar Division was issued throughout the 1962 fiscal year. This publication contains the latest available statistics and data for sugar on the domestic movement, supply and price situation, analyses of domestic and world market situations and of current problems of interest to domestic producers and consumers. Receipts Receipts from the sugar program exceed Government outlays. The Sugar Act, through an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code, imposes a tax of 50 cents per hundred pounds of sugar, raw value, on all beet or cane sugar processed in or imported into the continental United States for direct consumption. The excise tax on sugar, under Public Law 87-535, was extended to June 30, 1967. Section 213 of Public Law 87-535 further provides that all foreign sugar (except that from the Philippines) marketed in the continental United States shall be subject to the payment of an import fee which absorbs part or all of the difference between the domestic and world market prices. Sugar marketed against the Cuban reserve quota ("global quota") is subject to the full quota premium payment. Sugar marketed against specific foreign quotas assigned under the act are subject to a cumulative increase of 10 percent for each of the 3 years for which such quotas are established. The following table shows taxes collected compared with obligations under the sugar program: Tax collections exceed total program obligations in the amount of $465,472,014 for fiscal years 1938 through 1962. 1 Preliminary. $37,388, 463 2,200, 624, 345 Pursuant to section 213, Public Law 87-535. Financial requirements Table II summarizes financial requirements for the program. 1 The appropriation requested anticipates that actual payment requirements in the fiscal year 1964 may be less than those indicated by current forecasts of production. SUGAR ACT PAYMENTS Mr. WHITTEN. Since someone is constantly asking these questions, I would like for you to show for the record the total number of payees under the Sugar Act program for whatever period of years is convenient, the amount of money that has been paid out, and the larger payments in the top percentage of payees. Mr. GODFREY. We can do that. (The information requested follows:) Mr. GODFREY. I might point out one thing on sugar: As illustrated yesterday, the situation has changed materially from last year in that world prices are much higher. In addition to that, with the new Sugar Act that was passed last year, the portion of the total consumption is higher for the domestics than it was previously. This involves additional payment, of course. The percentage that can now be produced domestically went up from about 53.5 to roughly 59.9 percent of the total consumption estimate. NATIONAL WOOL ACT Mr. WHITTEN. Next is the Wool Act. We shall insert the justification material. The decrease of $164,861 is the difference between the estimated maximum reimbursement authorized in the fiscal year 1964 and the amount of reimbursement in the fiscal year 1963 for costs incurred under the National Wool Act during the fiscal year 1962 and prior years. Wool payments for the 1961 marketing year program-made in the fiscal year 1963-are estimated to total $56.9 million. This amount consists of estimated payments of $47.4 million on approximately 248 million pounds of shorn wool at an average rate of 19.1 cents per pound, and price support payments of $9.5 million on 12.5 million hundredweight of unshorn lambs sold. Wool for unshorn lambs sold is supported on a basis comparable to that for shorn wool. Operating expenses and interest charges are expected to bring the total costs of the wool program for the 1961 marketing year to $62.9 million. For this and other amounts expended in prior years not previously recovered, the basic statute provides for reimbursement to the Commodity Credit Corporation to the extent of 70 percent of the duties on wool and wool manufactures collected in the preceding calendar year. Unrecovered costs will remain on the books of the Corporation until subsequent appropriations become available. At the current rate of duties collected, it is anticipated that full reimbursement for costs during the fiscal year 1963 (1961 marketing year) and for prior years will not be received until the fiscal year 1965. Following are total duties collected on wool and wool manufactures during the calendar year 1961, and 70 percent of such duties available for payments under the National Wool Act and the basis for reimbursement to the Commodity Credit Corporation: |