The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced today that, as required by statute, it will conduct a referendum for eligible manufacturers and importers of paper and paper-based packaging to vote on whether to continue the Paper and Paper-Based Packaging Promotion, Research and Information Order. The referendum will be held Oct. 12-23, 2020.
The research and promotion program will continue if it is favored by a majority of domestic manufacturers and importers voting in the referendum, who also represent a majority of the volume of paper and paper-based packaging represented in the referendum.
Persons who domestically either manufactured or imported 100,000 short tons or more of paper and paper-based packaging during the representative period of Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2019, are eligible to vote in the referendum.
AMS will conduct the referendum by express mail and online electronic balloting. Ballots and voting instructions will be express mailed to all known eligible manufacturers and importers of paper and paper-based packaging before the voting period. Any eligible manufacturer or importer who does not receive a ballot by Oct. 12, 2020, should contact referendum agent Stacy Jones King at (202) 731-2117, (202) 720-9915 or Stacy.JonesKing@usda.gov. Completed ballots delivered to AMS via express mail or electronically must be delivered no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on Oct. 23, 2020.
The notice of the referendum was published in the Federal Register on Sept. 3, 2020.
More information about referendum procedures is in Subpart B of the Paper and Paper-Based Packaging Promotion, Research and Information Order. For more information about the Board, visit the AMS Paper and Packaging Board webpage and the board’s website, Paperandpackaging.org.
Since 1966, Congress has authorized the development of industry-funded research and promotion boards to provide a framework for agricultural industries to pool their resources and combine efforts to develop new markets, strengthen existing markets and conduct important research and promotion activities. The Agricultural Marketing Service provides oversight of 21 boards, paid for by industry assessments, which helps ensure fiscal accountability and program integrity.
#