Agricultural commodity means any commodity in its raw or natural state; found in chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 23, 24, 41, 51, and 52 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS).

Articles like or directly competitive generally means products falling under the same HTS number used to identify the agricultural commodity in the petition. A “like” product means substantially identical in inherent or intrinsic characteristics, and the term “directly competitive” means articles that are substantially equivalent for commercial purposes (i.e., adapted to the same uses and essentially interchangeable therefore). For fishery products, competition could be either from farm-raised or wild-caught products.

Authorized representative means an entity that represents a group of agricultural commodity producers or fishermen.

Average price received by the producer means the average of the 3 marketing year prices per unit received by the producer from the first level of sales for the commodity.

Cash receipts mean the value of commodity marketings during the calendar year, irrespective of the year of production, as calculated by the Economic Research Service of the USDA.

Certification of eligibility means the date on which the Administrator (FAS) announces in the Federal Register or by Department news release, whichever comes first, a certification of eligibility to apply for trade adjustment assistance.

Contributed importantly means a cause which is important, but not necessarily more important than any other cause.

County price maintained by the Secretary means a daily price obtained from a USDA agency for the commodity and producer location, except that weekly or monthly prices may be used if daily prices are unavailable.

Department means the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Deputy Administrator means the Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs of the Farm Service Agency (FSA).

Family member means an individual to whom a producer is related as spouse, lineal ancestor, lineal descendent, or sibling, including:

Filing period means the dates during which petitions may be submitted, as published in the Federal Register.

FSA means the Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Group means three or more producers who are not members of the same family.

Impacted area means one or more States of the United States.

Marketing year means the marketing season or year designated by the Administrator (FAS) with respect to an agricultural commodity. In the case of an agricultural commodity that does not have a designated marketing year, a calendar year will be used.

National average price means the average price paid to producers for an agricultural commodity in a marketing year as determined by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, when available, or when unavailable, as determined by the Administrator (FAS).

NIFA means the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Federal agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture which administers the Federal agricultural extension programs.

Producer means a person who shares in the risk of producing an agricultural commodity and is entitled to a share of the commodity for marketing; including an operator, a sharecropper, or a person who owns or rents the land on which the commodity is produced; or a person who reports gain or loss from the trade or business of fishing on the person's annual Federal income tax return for the taxable year that most closely corresponds to the marketing year with respect to which a petition is filed.

Raw or natural state means unaltered by any process other than cleaning, grading, coating, sorting, trimming, mixing, conditioning, drying, dehulling, shelling, chilling, cooling, blanching, irradiating, or fumigating.

State Cooperative Extension Service means an organization established at the land-grant college or university under the Smith-Lever Act of May 8, 1914, as amended (7 U.S.C. 341-349); section 209(b) of the Act of October 26, 1974, as amended (D.C. Code, through section 31-1719(b)); or section 1444 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977, as amended (7 U.S.C. 3221).

United States means the 50 States of the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Value of production means the value of commodities produced during the crop year calculated as production times the marketing year average price. This may be equal to cash receipts when the crop year for the commodity runs from January through December.