Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological and Ethnological Material of India

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>U.S. Customs and Border Protection</SUBAGY> <CFR>19 CFR Part 12</CFR> <DEPDOC>[CBP Dec. 25-09]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1685-AA33</RIN> <SUBJECT>Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological and Ethnological Material of India</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations to reflect the imposition of import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological material from the Republic of India (India). These restrictions are imposed pursuant to an agreement between the United States and India, entered into under the authority of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act. This document amends the CBP regulations by adding India to the list of countries which have bilateral agreements with the United States imposing cultural property import restrictions and contains the Designated List, describing the archaeological and ethnological material to which the restrictions apply. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective on July 28, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For legal aspects, W. Richmond Beevers, Chief, Cargo Security, Carriers and Restricted Merchandise Branch, Regulations and Rulings, Office of Trade, (202) 325-0084, <E T="03">ot-otrrculturalproperty@cbp.dhs.gov.</E> For operational aspects, Julie L. Stoeber, Chief, 1USG Branch, Trade Policy and Programs, Office of Trade, (202) 945-7064, <E T="03">1USGBranch@cbp.dhs.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (Pub. L. 97-446, 19 U.S.C. 2601 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) (CPIA), which implements the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (823 U.N.T.S. 231 (1972)) (Convention), allows for the conclusion of an agreement between the United States and another party to the Convention to impose import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological material. Pursuant to the CPIA, the United States entered into a bilateral agreement with the Republic of India (India) to impose import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological material of India. This rule announces that the United States is now imposing import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological material of India through July 26, 2029. This period may be extended for additional periods, each extension not to exceed five years, if it is determined that the factors justifying the initial agreement still pertain and no cause for suspension of the agreement exists (19 U.S.C. 2602(e); § 12.104g(a) of title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations (19 CFR 12.104g(a))). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Determinations</HD> Under 19 U.S.C. 2602(a)(1), the United States must make certain determinations before entering into an agreement to impose import restrictions under 19 U.S.C. 2602(a)(2). On December 13, 2023, the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, after consultation with and recommendation by the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, made the determinations required under the statute with respect to certain archaeological and ethnological material originating in India that is described in the Designated List set forth below in this document. These determinations include the following: (1) that the cultural patrimony of India is in jeopardy from the pillage of archaeological material representing India's cultural heritage dating from approximately 1.7 million years ago to 1770 C.E., and ethnological material dating from approximately the 2nd century B.C.E. to 1947 C.E. (19 U.S.C. 2602(a)(1)(A)); (2) that the government of India has taken measures consistent with the Convention to protect its cultural patrimony (19 U.S.C. 2602(a)(1)(B)); (3) that import restrictions imposed by the United States would be of substantial benefit in deterring a serious situation of pillage and remedies less drastic are not available (19 U.S.C. 2602(a)(1)(C)); and (4) that the application of import restrictions as set forth in this final rule is consistent with the general interests of the international community in the interchange of cultural property among nations for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes (19 U.S.C. 2602(a)(1)(D)). The Assistant Secretary also found that the material described in the determinations meets the statutory definition of “archaeological or ethnological material of the State Party” (19 U.S.C. 2601(2)). <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Agreement</HD> On July 26, 2024, the Governments of the United States and India signed a bilateral agreement, “Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of India Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Categories of Archaeological and Ethnological Material of India” (Agreement), pursuant to the provisions of 19 U.S.C. 2602(a)(2). The Agreement entered into force upon signature and enables the promulgation of import restrictions on certain categories of archaeological material ranging in date from approximately 1.7 million years ago to 1770 C.E., as well as certain categories of ethnological material dating from approximately the 2nd century B.C.E. to 1947 C.E. A list of the categories of archaeological and ethnological material subject to the import restrictions is set forth later in this document. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Restrictions and Amendment to the Regulations</HD> In accordance with the Agreement, importation of material designated below is subject to the restrictions of 19 U.S.C. 2606 and 19 CFR 12.104g(a) and will be restricted from entry into the United States unless the conditions set forth in 19 U.S.C. 2606 and 19 CFR 12.104c are met. CBP is amending 19 CFR 12.104g(a) to indicate that these import restrictions have been imposed. Import restrictions listed at 19 CFR 12.104g(a) are effective for no more than five years beginning on the date on which an agreement enters into force with respect to the United States. This period may be extended for additional periods of not more than five years if it is determined that the factors which justified the agreement still pertain and no cause for suspension of the agreement exists. Therefore, the import restrictions will expire on July 26, 2029, unless extended. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Designated List of Archaeological and Ethnological Material of India</HD> The Agreement between the United States and India includes, but is not limited to, the categories of objects described in the Designated List set forth below. The Designated List includes archaeological and ethnological material from India. The archaeological material in the Designated List ranges in date from 1.7 million years ago through 1770 C.E. The ethnological material in the Designated List includes civic, religious, and royal architectural material; religious material and ceremonial items; and manuscripts, portions of manuscripts, and materials used to bind manuscripts dating from the 2nd century B.C.E. to 1947 C.E. The list set forth below is representative only. Any dates and dimensions are approximate. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Categories of Archaeological and Ethnological Material</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Archaeological Material</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Stone</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Ceramics, Faience, and Fired Clay</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Metal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Plaster, Stucco, and Unfired Clay</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Paintings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Ivory and Bone</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Glass</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Paper, Leather, Birch Bark, and Palm-Leaf</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Textiles</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Wood, Shell, and other Organic Material</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Human Remains</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Ethnological Material</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Architectural Elements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Religious and Ceremonial Items</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Manuscripts</FP> </EXTRACT> Approximate simplified chronology of well-known periods: Lower Paleolithic Era to Mesolithic Era: c. 1.7 million years ago-7000 B.C.E. Neolithic Era: c. 7000-4500 B.C.E. Chalcolithic Era (including, but not limited to, Indus Valley Civilization, also called Harappan Civilization; Southern Neolithic Era): c. 4500-1500 B.C.E. Early Historic and Historic Periods (including, but not limited to, Southern Neolithic Era, Iron Age, and Southern Early Historic Period; Vedic Period, including the advent of Buddhism and Jainism; Mauryan, Shunga-Kushan, and Gupta Empires; Indo-Greek Period; Chera, Chola, and Pandya Dynasties): c. 1500 B.C.E.-550 C.E. Medieval Period (including, but not limited to, Gurjara-Pratihara and Pala Dynasties; Chola, Rastrakuta, and Pallava Dynasties; Delhi Sultanate): 550-1526 C.E. Mughal Empire or Early Modern Period (including, but not limited to, Nayaka kingdoms and Maratha Empire): 1526-1858 C.E. Colonial Period: 1858-1947 C.E. <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Archaeological Material</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Stone</HD> (1) Architectural Elements—Primarily in sandstone, limestone, marble, granite, basalt, slate, schist, quartzite, and khondalite, but includes other types of stone. Category includes, but is not limited to: arches; balustrades; beams; benches; brackets; bricks and blocks from walls, ceilings, gates, and floors; buttresses; columns, including capitals and bases; cornices; dentils; disks, including <E T="03">amalakas</E> and <E T="03">ch ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 71k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━