U.S.-Belize MoU Signed

Belize's Institute of Archaeology and the National Institute of Culture and History are reporting on their Facebook page the signing yesterday of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United States and Belize, which enacts import protections on endangered cultural property entering the U.S.

Signing of MoU between Belize and the United States.  Source: NICH

Belize petitioned the U.S. for an MoU seeking import restrictions pursuant to the Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA) and Article 9 of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.  The Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) met in November 2011 to listen to public public comments regarding the adoption of import measures.

As of 5:00 p.m. on February 28, 2013, no notice or announcement describing the signing ceremony had been published in the Federal Register, posted on the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs web site, or announced by the U.S. embassy in Belize.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2012 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com