Nicaraguan MOU Extended

The United States MOU with Nicaragua has been extended for another five years. See
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-26383.htm

Despite an indication that the State Department was considering an expansion of import restrictions into other areas (possibly religious art), that does not appear to have happened.

During the CPAC hearing on this renewal, the AAMD's counsel argued against such an expansion of the designated list, particularly because the State Department had not provided the public with adequate notice of what was contemplated. See
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/07/cpac-meets-on-mou-with-nicaragua.html

We'll have to wait for the renewed MOU to be posted to see if any of the AAMD's other suggestions made it into the document.

Addendum: The revised MOU can now be found here:
http://exchanges.state.gov/media/office-of-policy-and-evaluation/chc/pdfs/ni2010mouextengii.pdf

The 2005 version of Art. II can be found here:

http://exchanges.state.gov/heritage/culprop/nifact/pdfs/ni2005mouext.pdf

It does not appear to have tightened any requirements of Art. II, and, if anything, seems to have loosened them a bit.

The AAMD and others have noticed the following pattern emerge. Source countries make promises to secure a MOU. They don't get around to implementing them. Five years later, the MOU is renewed anyway. Five years more pass. They still haven't implemented their promises, but rather than scaling back the MOU or dropping it all together, State agrees to loosen the requirements of Art. II.