U.S. Customs and Border Protection December 3, 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations to reflect an extension and amendment of import restrictions on certain archaeological material and the imposition of import restrictions on ethnological material of the Arab Republic of Egypt (Egypt). The restrictions on archaeological material, which were originally imposed by CBP Dec. 16-23, were extended and amended on November 30, 2021. The Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, has made the requisite determinations for extending and updating the import restrictions that previously existed, and the Governments of the United States and Egypt entered into a new agreement to reflect the extension of these import restrictions. Additionally, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, has made the requisite determinations for adding import restrictions on certain categories of ethnological material. The new agreement, which entered into force on November 30, 2021, supersedes the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that became effective on November 30, 2016, and enabled the promulgation of the existing import restrictions. Accordingly, the current import restrictions and new import restrictions will be effective until November 30, 2026, and the CBP regulations are being amended to reflect this extension and imposition. To fulfill the terms of the new MOU, the Designated List of cultural property, which was described in CBP Dec. 16-23, is amended in this document to reflect the addition and revision of categories of archaeological material of Egypt ranging in date from approximately 300,000 B.C. to A.D. 1750, and to include certain ethnological material ranging from A.D. 1517 to 1914.