Sec. 1111 – Definitions

“Seed Cotton” has been included in the list of covered commodities. The 2014 Farm Bill removed cotton as an eligible crop for commodity payments. This, along with creation of the STAX program in crop insurance—a shallow loss program reserved exclusively for growers of upland cotton— was done to resolve a long-running trade dispute with Brazil. “Seed Cotton” is a new commodity designation first created in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Bringing cotton into the ARC and PLC programs may revive the WTO dispute with Brazil. A dispute that saw taxpayers spend more than $700 million subsidizing Brazilian cotton growers so that US cotton growers could still receive subsidies the WTO found trade distorting without retaliation from Brazil.