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U.S. Code as of:
01/03/05
Section 2101. Congressional declaration of policy
Cotton is the basic natural fiber of the Nation. It is produced
by many individual cottongrowers throughout the various
cotton-producing States of the Nation and also outside the United
States. Cotton moves in the channels of interstate and foreign
commerce and such cotton which does not move in such channels
directly burdens or affects interstate commerce in cotton and
cotton products. The efficient production of cotton and the
maintenance and expansion of existing markets and the development
of new or improved markets and uses is vital to the welfare of
cottongrowers and those concerned with marketing, using, and
processing cotton as well as the general economy of the Nation. The
great inroads on the market and uses for cotton which have been
made by manmade fibers have been largely the result of extensive
research and promotion which have not been effectively matched by
cotton research and promotion. The production and marketing of
cotton by numerous individual farmers have prevented the
development and carrying out of adequate and coordinated programs
of research and promotion necessary to the maintenance and
improvement of the competitive position of, and markets for,
cotton. Without an effective and coordinated method for assuring
cooperative and collective action in providing for, and financing
such programs, individual cotton farmers are unable adequately to
provide or obtain the research and promotion necessary to maintain
and improve markets for cotton.
It has long been found to be in the public interest to have, or
endeavor to have, a reasonable balance between the supply of and
demand for cotton grown in this country. To serve this public
interest the Congress has provided for the comprehensive exercise
of regulatory authority in regulating the handling of such cotton
supplemented by price-support programs with the objective of
adjusting supply to demand in the interest of benefiting producers
and all others concerned with the production and handling of cotton
as well as the general economy of the country. In order for the
objective of such programs to be effectuated to the fullest degree,
it is necessary that the existing regulation of marketing be
supplemented by providing as part of the overall governmental
program for effectuating this objective, means of increasing the
demand for cotton with the view of eventually reducing or
eliminating the need for limiting marketings and supporting the
price of cotton.
It is therefore declared to be the policy of the Congress and the
purpose of this chapter that it is essential in the public interest
through the exercise of the powers provided herein, to authorize
and enable the establishment of an orderly procedure for the
development, financing through adequate assessments on all cotton
marketed in the United States and on imports of cotton, and
carrying out an effective and continuous coordinated program of
research and promotion designed to strengthen cotton's competitive
position and to maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets
and uses for United States cotton.
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