WASHINGTON, July 23, 2008 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) today announced changes for submitting application fees for GSM-102 credit guarantee applications. Application fees associated with all registration applications must be received by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) within five business days of submission of the application.

Regulations under 7 CFR 1493, Subpart B, 1493.70(c) Payment of fee require that participants submit, through the U.S. mail, all application fees with their written application. However, because of the advent of electronic applications, submitting fees with an application is not always possible. Therefore, CCC allows fees to be submitted separately by wire or check.

In order to ensure that the CCC receives prompt payment of application fees, electronic applications for which CCC has not received fees within five business days will be subject to cancellation.

For further information or questions, contact FAS’ Jonathan Doster, Branch Chief, Registrations and Operations, Office of Trade Programs, at (202) 720-3277. More information on USDA’s GSM-102 program can be found at http://www.fas.usda.gov/exportprograms.asp

PR-0127-08