Title 7 — AgricultureRelease 119-73

§511 Definitions

Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 21A— - TOBACCO INSPECTION › § 511

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Defines key words used in the chapter about tobacco. Person includes people, partnerships, associations, and corporations. Secretary means the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Inspector is someone the Secretary hires or authorizes to check and certify tobacco quality and type. Sampler is someone the Secretary hires or authorizes to take, tag, and seal official tobacco samples. Weigher is someone the Secretary hires or authorizes to weigh tobacco and certify the weight. Tobacco means tobacco that is not yet made into products. Auction market is a place where producers bring tobacco to be sold at auction through a warehouseman or commission merchant. Singular words can be read as plural when needed. Commerce means trade that crosses state, territory, possession, the District of Columbia, or national borders, or that moves between points in the same state by going through another place; tobacco is in commerce if it is part of the usual flow of tobacco across places (including sales for shipment to another state or for making products that will be shipped out), and using tricks cannot remove tobacco from that flow. For this meaning, “State” also covers territories, the District of Columbia, possessions, and foreign nations.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §511

Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

When used in this chapter—

(a)“Person” includes partnerships, associations, and corporations, as well as individuals.

(b)“Secretary” means the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States.

(c)“Inspector” means any person employed, licensed, or authorized by the Secretary to determine and certify the type, grade, condition, or other characteristics of tobacco.

(d)“Sampler” means any person employed, licensed, or authorized by the Secretary to select, tag, and seal official samples of tobacco.

(e)“Weigher” means any person employed, licensed, or authorized by the Secretary to weigh and certify the weight of tobacco.

(f)“Tobacco” means tobacco in its unmanufactured form.

(g)“Auction market” means a market or place to which tobacco is delivered by the producers thereof, or their agents, for sale at auction through a warehouseman or commission merchant.

(h)Words in the singular form shall be deemed to import the plural form when necessary.

(i)“Commerce” means commerce between any State, Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, and any place outside thereof; or between points within the same State, Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, but through any place outside thereof; or within any Territory or possession, or the District of Columbia. For the purposes of this chapter (but not in any wise limiting the foregoing definition) a transaction in respect to tobacco shall be considered to be in commerce if such tobacco is part of that current of commerce usual in the tobacco industry whereby tobacco or products manufactured therefrom are sent from one State with the expectation that they will end their transit, after purchase, in another, including, in addition to cases within the above general description, all cases where purchase or sale is either for shipment to another State or for manufacture within the State and the shipment outside the State of the products resulting from such manufacture. Tobacco normally in such current of commerce shall not be considered out of such current through resort being had to any means or device intended to remove transactions in respect thereto from the provisions of this chapter. For the purpose of this paragraph the word “State” includes Territory, the District of Columbia, possession of the United States, and foreign nations.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 511

Title 7 — Agriculture

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73