Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 99 Part 2.djvu/374

 99 STAT. 1484

PUBLIC LAW 99-198—DEC. 23, 1985

the cost of freight from the United States to designated points of entry in other nations; and .j„ (ii) for the establishment of facilities in the importing nation to improve handling, marketing, processing, storage, or distribution of imported agricultural commodities (through the use of local currency generated from the import and sale of United States agricultural commodities or the products thereof to finance all or part of such facilities). (4) As used in paragraph (3)(A)(i), the term "subsidy" includes an export subsidy, tax rebate on exports, financial assistance on preferential terms, financial assistance for operating losses, assumption of costs or expenses of production, processing, or distribution, a differential export tax or duty exemption, a domestic consumption quota, or other method of furnishing or ensuring the availability of raw materials at artificially low prices. (b) In carrying out the program established by this section, the Secretary of Agriculture— (1) shall take such action as may be necessary to ensure that the program provides equal treatment to domestic and foreign purchasers and users of United States agricultural commodities and the products thereof in any case in which the importation ' of a manufactured product made, in whole or in part, from a commodity or the product thereof made available for export under this section would place domestic users of the commodity or the product thereof at a competitive disadvantage; (2) shall, to the extent that agricultural commodities and the products thereof £u*e to be provided to foreign purchasers during any fiscal year, consider for participation all interested foreign purchasers, giving priority to those who have traditionally purchased United States agricultural commodities and the products thereof and who continue to purchase such commodities and the products thereof on an annual basis in quantities greater than the level of purchases in a previous representative period; (3) shall encourage increased use and avoid displacing usual marketings of United States agricultural commodities and the products thereof; (4) shall take reasonable precautions to prevent the resale or transshipment to other countries, or use for other than domestic use in the importing country, of agricultural commodities or the products thereof the export of which is assisted under this section; and (5) may provide to a United States exporter, user, processor, or foreign purchaser, under the program, agricultural commodities of a kind different than the agricultural commodity involved in the transaction for which assistance under this section is being provided. (c)(1) If a country does not meet the financial qualifications for export credit or credit guarantees provided by the Commodity Credit Corporation, the Secretary may provide to such country agricultural commodities and the products thereof acquired by the Corporation to the extent necessary to reduce the cost to such country of purchasing United States agricultural commodities and to allow such country to meet such qualifications. (2) The Secretary shall review and adjust annually the quantity of commodities provided to a country under paragraph (1) in order to encourage such country to place greater reliance on increased use of

�