408 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 3 / Tuesday, January 6, 1998 / Rules and Regulations

action effective retroactively to

December 12, 1997, which is the date

APHIS issued a policy stating it had

stopped issuing import permits for the

live ruminants and ruminant products

and byproducts covered by this interim

rule. This effective date is necessary to

ensure that ruminant and ruminant

products and byproducts infected with

BSE are not imported into the United

States.

Because prior notice and other public

procedures with respect to this action

are impracticable and contrary to the

public interest under these conditions,

we find good cause under 5 U.S.C. 533

to make the rule effective December 12,

1997. We will consider comments that

are received within 60 days of

publication of this rule in the Federal

Register. After the comment period

closes, we will publish another

document in the Federal Register. It

will include a discussion of any

comments we receive and any

amendments we are making to the rule

as a result of the comments.

Executive Order 12866 and Regulatory

Flexibility Act

This rule has been reviewed under

Executive Order 12866. For this action,

the Office of Management and Budget

has waived its review process required

by Executive Order 12866.

This emergency situation makes

compliance with section 603 and timely

compliance with section 604 of the

Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601

et seq.) impracticable. If we determine

this rule would have a significant

economic impact on a substantial

number of small entities, then we will

discuss the issues raised by section 604

of the Regulatory Flexibility Act in our

Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis.

Executive Order 12988

This rule has been reviewed under

Executive Order 12988, Civil Justice

Reform. This rule: (1) Preempts all State

and local laws and regulations that are

inconsistent with this rule; (2) has

retroactive effect to December 12, 1997;

and (3) does not require administrative

proceedings before parties may file suit

in court challenging this rule.

Paperwork Reduction Act

In accordance with the Paperwork

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501

et seq.), the information collection or

recordkeeping requirements included in

this rule have been approved by the

Office of Management and Budget

(OMB), and there are no new

requirements. The assigned OMB

control number is 0579–0040.

List of Subjects

9 CFR Part 94

Animal diseases, Imports, Livestock,

Meat and meat products, Milk, Poultry

and poultry products, Reporting and

recordkeeping requirements.

9 CFR Part 96

Imports, Livestock, Reporting and

recordkeeping requirements.

Accordingly, we are amending 9 CFR,

chapter I, subchapter D, as follows:

PART 94—RINDERPEST, FOOT-ANDMOUTH DISEASE, FOWL PEST (FOWL

PLAGUE), EXOTIC NEWCASTLE

DISEASE, AFRICAN SWINE FEVER,

HOG CHOLERA, AND BOVINE

SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY;

PROHIBITED AND RESTRICTED

IMPORTATIONS

1. The authority citation for part 94

continues to read as follows:

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 147a, 150ee, 161, 162,

and 450; 19 U.S.C. 1306, 21 U.S.C. 111, 114a,

134a, 134b, 134c, 134f, 136, and 136a; 31

U.S.C. 9701; 42 U.S.C. 4331 and 4332; 7 CFR

2.22, 2.80, and 371.2(d).

§ 94.18 [Amended]

2. Section 94.18 is amended by

revising the heading to the section and

paragraphs (a) and (b) to read as follows:

§ 94.18 Restrictions on importation of

meat and edible products from ruminants

due to bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

(a)(1) Bovine spongiform

encephalopathy exists in the following

regions: Belgium, France, the Republic

of Ireland, Luxembourg, Oman, The

Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, and

the United Kingdom.

(2) The following regions, because of

import requirements less restrictive than

those that would be acceptable for

import into the United States and/or

because of inadequate surveillance,

present and undue risk of introducing

bovine spongiform encephalopathy into

the United States: Albania, Austria,

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,

the Czech Republic, Denmark, the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,

Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary,

Italy, the Former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania,

the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain,

and Sweden.

(3) A region may request at any time

that the Administrator considers its

removal from a list set forth in

paragraphs (a)(1) or (a)(2) of this section

by following the procedures set forth

§§ 92.2(b) (1) through (4), 92.2(b) (5)

through (11), and 92.2(c) of this chapter.

(b) Except as provided in paragraph

(d) of this section, the importation of

fresh, frozen, and chilled meat, meat

products, and edible products other

than meat (excluding gelatin, milk, and

milk products), from ruminant that have

been in any of the countries listed in

paragraph (a) of this section is

prohibited.

* * * * *

PART 96—RESTRICTION OF

IMPORTATIONS OF FOREIGN ANIMAL

CASINGS OFFERED FOR ENTRY INTO

THE UNITED STATES

3. The authority citation for part 96

continues to read as follows:

Authority: 21 U.S.C. 111, 136, 136a; 7 CFR

2.22, 2.80, and 371.2(d).

§ 96.2 [Amended]

4. Section 96.2 is amended by revising

the heading to the section and

paragraph (b) to read as follows:

§ 96.2 Prohibition of casings due to

African swine fever and bovine spongiform

encephalopathy.

* * * * *

(b) The importation of casings, except

stomachs, from bovines and other

ruminants that orginated in or were

processed in any region listed in

§ 94.18(a) of this subchapter is

prohibited.

Done in Washington, DC, this 31st day of

December 1997.

Joan M. Arnoldi,

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant

Health Inspection Service.

[FR Doc. 98–266 Filed 1–5–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3410–34–M

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

21 CFR Parts 510, 520, and 558

New Animal Drugs and Related

Products; Change of Sponsor;

Correction

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration,

HHS.

ACTION: Final rule; correction.

SUMMARY: The Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) is correcting a

document that appeared in the Federal

Register of October 23, 1997 (62 FR

55159). The document amended the

animal drug regulations to reflect a

change of sponsor for three new animal

drug applications (NADA’s) and three

abbreviated new animal drug

applications (ANADA’s) from WadeJones Co., Inc., and its manufacturing

subsidiary Arkansas Micro Specialties,
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 3 / Tuesday, January 6, 1998 / Rules and Regulations 409

Inc., to Alpharma Inc. The document

was published with two inadvertent

errors. This document corrects those

errors.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 6, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Judith O’Haro, Center for Veterinary

Medicine (HFV–6), Food and Drug

Administration, 7500 Standish Pl.,

Rockville, MD 20855, 301–827–3664.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In FR Doc.

97–28011, appearing on page 55159, in

the Federal Register of Thursday,

October 23, 1997, the following

corrections are made:

On page 55159, in the third column,

in the SUMMARY paragraph, in lines

five and six, the phrase ‘‘three

abbreviated new animal drug

applications (ANADA’s)’’ is corrected to

read ‘‘two abbreviated new animal drug

applications (ANADA’s)’’ and on the

same page, the table is corrected by

removing the last entry.

Dated: December 22, 1997.

William K. Hubbard,

Associate Commissioner for Policy

Coordination.

[FR Doc. 98–152 Filed 1-5-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4160–01–F

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Internal Revenue Service

26 CFR Part 1

[TD 8752]

RIN 1545–AU67

Reorganizations/ Treatment of

Warrants as Securities

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS),

Treasury.

ACTION: Final regulations.

SUMMARY: This document contains final

regulations that in certain instances

provide for nonrecognition of gain or

loss on the receipt, in pursuance of a

reorganization, of rights to acquire stock

of a corporation that is a party to the

reorganization. These regulations

change the existing rules for such rights

under sections 354, 355, and 356 of the

Internal Revenue Code. These

regulations will affect holders of these

rights who are involved in corporate

reorganizations under sections 355 and

368.

DATES: These regulations are effective

March 9, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael J. Danbury, (202) 622–7750 (not

a toll-free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On December 23, 1996, the IRS and

Treasury Department published a notice

of proposed rulemaking (REG–249819–

96) in the Federal Register (61 FR

67508) containing proposed

amendments to the Income Tax

Regulations (26 CFR part 1) under

sections 354, 355, and 356, relating to

exchanges of stock and securities in

certain reorganizations and corporate

divisions. Written and oral comments

responding to this notice were received.

There were no requests to attend a

public hearing and none was held. After

consideration of all comments received,

the proposed amendments are adopted

as revised by this Treasury decision.

The principal changes to the

regulations, as well as the major

comments and suggestions, are

discussed below.

Explanation of Provisions

A. The Proposed Regulations

In general, sections 354, 355, and 356

provide for nonrecognition of gain or

loss, in whole or in part, to a

stockholder or security holder on the

exchange of stock or securities of parties

to a reorganization and in pursuance of

a plan of reorganization.

The proposed regulations would

extend the nonrecognition rule of

sections 354, 355, and 356 to certain

rights to acquire stock. Thus, for

purposes of sections 354, 355, and 356,

the proposed regulations would treat

rights to acquire stock issued by a

corporation that is a party to a

reorganization as securities of the

corporation with no principal amount.

The preamble to the proposed

regulations provided that, for this

purpose, the term rights to acquire stock

issued by that corporation would have

the same meaning as the term has in

sections 305(d)(1) and 317(a). In

addition, the preamble stated that the

proposed regulations would have no

effect on other Internal Revenue Code

rules that pertain to securities,

including sections 83 and 421 through

424 and the regulations thereunder.

B. Comments on the Proposed

Regulations

1. Elaboration on the Definition of

‘‘Rights To Acquire Stock’’

Commentators recommended that the

final regulations include an explicit

definition of rights to acquire stock.

They submitted particular examples for

inclusion in the definition.

The final regulations add a crossreference to sections 305 and 317(a) in

defining rights to acquire stock. This

cross-reference should provide

sufficient guidance in most cases for

taxpayers to determine the

consequences on a receipt of rights. The

IRS and Treasury believe that

illustrating the terms of sections 305

and 317 is outside the scope of these

regulations. Accordingly, the final

regulations provide no definition other

than the cross-reference.

2. Treatment of Stock-for-Warrant

Exchanges

Section 1.354–1(d), Example 3, states

that section 354 does not apply to a

shareholder’s receipt of solely debt

securities in exchange for stock.

Commentators requested confirmation

that section 354 also does not apply to

a shareholder’s receipt of solely

securities that are rights to acquire stock

in exchange for stock. The final

regulations confirm this result in

Example 4 to § 1.354–1(d).

3. Effective Date

These final regulations are effective

March 9, 1998. This accords with the

delayed effective date in the proposed

regulations. Commentators requested

more immediate effectiveness.

The IRS and Treasury are concerned

that taxpayers who have planned

transactions based on the proposed

regulations’ delayed effective date could

be disadvantaged by a change in the

effective date. Accordingly, the final

regulations retain the delayed effective

date.

4. Interrelationship With Section 83

The preamble to the proposed

regulations noted that the rules would

apply to rights to acquire stock only for

purposes of sections 354 through 356,

and that such rights may remain subject

to other special rules under the Internal

Revenue Code and the regulations

including sections 83 and 421 through

424.

Commentators recommended an

explicit statement to that effect in the

final regulations. The regulations adopt

this recommendation.

5. Effect in ‘‘B’’ Reorganizations

Commentators requested a review of

published guidance that concerns

exchanges of rights to acquire stock as

part of a larger transaction that includes

a stock-for-stock reorganization under

section 368(a)(1)(B). The IRS intends to

address this issue in the near future.

6. No Principal Amount

Commentators sought clarification of

the proposed rule that rights to acquire

stock would have no principal amount.