Article 2 — Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation: (1) Agreement means the ITA and, after its entry into force, the EMPA; (2) bilateral safeguard clause means a provision relating to the temporary suspension of tariff preferences that is set out in the bilateral safeguard measures chapter of the Agreement; (3) interested parties means parties affected by the imports of the product, including: (a) exporters or foreign producers or importers of a product subject to investigation, or a trade or business association a majority of whose members are producers, exporters or importers of such product; (b) the government of the exporting Party; and (c) producers of the like or directly competitive product in the importing Party or a trade and business association a majority of whose members produces the like or directly competitive product in the territory of the importing Party; (4) Union industry means either the Union producers, as a whole, of the like or directly competitive product who operate within the territory of the Union or Union producers whose collective output of the like or directly competitive product normally constitutes more than 50 % and in exceptional circumstances not less than 25 % of the total production of such product; (5) serious injury means a significant overall impairment to the position of the Union industry; (6) threat of serious injury means a serious injury that is clearly imminent, based on facts and not merely on allegation, conjecture or remote possibility; (7) products means agricultural products listed in Annex 1 to the WTO Agreement on Agriculture subject to tariff reduction commitment as indicated in Appendix 10-A-1 (Tariff Elimination Schedule for the European Union) to the EMPA and Appendix 2-A-1 (Tariff Elimination Schedule for the European Union) to the ITA; (8) sensitive products means products referred to in the Annex to this Regulation; (9) like or directly competitive product means: (a) a product which is identical, meaning alike in all aspects to the product under consideration; (b) a product which, although not alike in all aspects, has characteristics closely resembling those of the product under consideration; or (c) a product which directly competes within the internal market of the importing Party, given its degree of substitutability, basic physical characteristics and technical specifications, final uses and channels of distribution; this list of factors is not exhaustive nor can one or several of these factors necessarily give decisive guidance; (10) transition period means: (a) a period of 12 years from the date of entry into force of the Agreement; or (b) for goods for which the Tariff Elimination Schedule of the Union provides for tariff elimination in 10 years or more, a period of 18 years from the date of entry into force of the Agreement; (11) country concerned means Mercosur as a sole entity or one or more Mercosur States that are parties to the Agreement.