of cooperation in three fields: (1) economic; (2) scientific and technological, and (3) educational and cultural. With respect to the third field, the Agreement recognizes the preeminence of the FulbrightHays program and states that the activities within this field will be coordinated with the United States Educational Foundation (established in Greece by the Agreement for Financing Educational Exchange Programs, signed at Athens, December 13, 1963; TIAS 5486; 14 UST 1770; entered into force, December 13, 1963).

Article II designates the Department of State and the Greek Ministry of Coordination as the executive agencies responsible for the administration and overall coordination of their respective parts of the program. In addition, Article II establishes joint working groups for each of the three fields, which are to meet once a year to work on previously agreed agenda items.

Article III provides that funding for the activities within the Agreement will be determined by the working group involved, funding to be subject to the availability of appropriated funds in the budgets of the agencies participating in particular activities. Participation in activities pursuant to the Agreement will be subject, also, to each party's laws and regulations.

Under Article IV, nothing in the Agreement is to be construed to prejudice other arrangements for cooperation in the three fields.

Article V provides that the Agreement enters into force on signature, is to remain in force for five years, and is to be extended for subsequent five-year periods, unless written notice to the contrary is given by either party. Further, the agreement may be terminated by either party on six months' notice.

The Agreement has been extended for five years from April 22, 1985, since no notice to the contrary was given before that date. It has not been implemented according to its terms, however, since the Greek Government that came into power after signature of the Agreement believed that it needed parliamentary approval therefor. This has not yet been obtained.

-E.M.

Multilateral Agreements

Nairobi Protocol to "Florence Agreement"

On October 24, 1980, Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie submitted to President Carter, with a view to its transmittal to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification, the Protocol to the Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials (the "Florence Agreement"), which the General Conference of the member States of UNESCO adopted at Nairobi on November 26, 1976. The Nairobi Protocol was opened for signature by all States party to the Florence Agreement at the United Nations on March 1, 1977.

The Secretary's report to the President read in part:

The Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials (known as the Florence Agreement) was adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at its Fifth Session in Florence, Italy in July 1950. The Agreement, which came into force for the United States on November 2, 1966, provides principally for the exemption from duty for imports of educational, scientific, and cultural materials in the interest of facilitating the international free flow of such materials, and generally the free flow of ideas and information. Materials falling within the coverage of the Agreement include: books, publications and documents; works of art and collectors' pieces; visual and auditory materials; scientific instruments and apparatus; and articles for the blind.

In 1973, a group of government experts charged by UNESCO with reviewing the Agreement concluded that technological progress since 1950 warranted an expansion of the Agreement to include additional categories of materials. Subsequently, a Special Intergovernment Committee of Experts produced a draft Protocol amending and substantially expanding the coverage of the Agreement. On November 26 1976, the General Conference of the member states of UNESCO, with the United States participating, adopted the draft Protocol. The document was then opened for signature to all States party to the Agreement on March 1, 1977, at the United Nations.

The Protocol modifies and extends the provisions of the original Agreement in a number of respects: (1) it extends the exemption from customs duties to a wide range of additional materials listed in nine Annexes (discussed in further detail below); (2) it provides in an optional provision for the undertaking not to levy internal taxes or other internal charges on certain specified materials (Part II); and (3) it provides, in another optional provision, for the undertaking to furnish necessary import licenses and foreign exchange for additional books, publications and other materials not previously covered (Part IV).

From the viewpoint of the United States, the major benefits to be derived from the Protocol are contained in the provisions exempting from customs duties those materials listed in the nine Annexes. Of these nine Annexes, some of which are mandatory and some . . . optional, the United States would adhere to five. Those Annexes are as follows:

ANNEX A: BOOKS, PUBLICATIONS, AND DOCUMENTS

Under the Agreement, books, newspapers, periodicals and many other categories of printed matter are granted duty-free treatment. The Protocol broadens the definition of printed books eligible for duty-free treatment and specifies that this treatment is to be extended to books irrespective of the language in which they are printed and whatever the amount of space given over to illus

trations. In addition, the Protocol extends duty-free treatment to other types of related materials such as printed documents or reports; microforms of some articles listed in the Agreement, notably printed books; and recordings or other audio-visual materials of an educational, scientific, or cultural character. The U.S. publishing industry (i.e., Association of American Publishers) strongly supports U.S. adoption of the Protocol in order to obtain the benefits of this provision.

ANNEX B: WORKS OF ART AND COLLECTORS' PIECES

OF AN EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL CHARACTER

The principal items under this Annex are paintings and drawings, of whatever material, executed entirely by hand. The Protocol also adds to Annex B of the Agreement ceramics and mosaics on wood, when they are original works of art. It also removes the condition in the Agreement that galleries, museums and other approved institutions to which collectors' pieces must be consigned, should be of a public character.

ANNEX C 1: VISUAL AND AUDITORY MATERIALS; ANNEX C 2: VISUAL
AND AUDITORY MATERIALS OF AN EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND
CULTURAL CHARACTER

Of the two alternative versions of this Annex (Annexes C.1 and C.2), the United States has chosen to adhere to Annex C.1. Annex C.1 is the more comprehensive of the two since it rescinds the previous requirements contained in the Agreement that the items covered be of an educational, scientific and cultural character, and that they be assigned to approved institutions. Thus, films, sound recordings, film strips and slides would enter duty-free under the Agreement even if they were being imported for commercial

purposes.

Beyond the expansion resulting from the elimination of the requirements just cited, several additional categories of visual and auditory materials are added:

1. Video-tapes, kinescopes, video-discs, videograms and other forms of visual and sound recordings;

2. Microcards, microfiches and magnetic or other information storage media required in computerized information and documentation services;

3. Materials for programmed instruction;

4. Transparencies, including those intended for direct projection or for viewing through optical devices;

5. Holograms for laser projection;

6. Mock-ups or visualizations of abstract concepts such as molecular structures or mathematical formulas;

7. Multi-media kits; and

8. Materials for the promotion of tourism, including those produced by private concerns, designed to encourage the public to travel outside the country of importation.

U.S. industry, particularly the recording industry (Recording Industry of America) and the film industry (Motion Picture Asso

ciation of America), believes that U.S. adoption of these provisions would lead to a substantial expansion of U.S. exports without inviting a large influx of potentially injurious imports.

ANNEX D: SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS

This provision of the Protocol extends duty-free treatment to all scientific instruments and apparatus whether or not they are to be used for educational purposes or pure scientific research (the limitation in the Agreement), but excludes such articles if they are intended for commercial purposes. Annex D is mandatory. It also maintains the requirement established in the Agreement that duty-free treatment is granted only if instruments or apparatus of equivalent scientific value are not manufactured in the importing country. The Protocol further extends the Agreement by including (1) spare parts, components and accessories matching scientific instruments or apparatus; and (2) tools for the maintenance, checking, gauging or repair of such instruments or apparatus.

ANNEX E: ARTICLES FOR THE BLIND AND OTHER HANDICAPPED Annex E of the Protocol continues the exemption in Annex E of the Agreement for materials for the advancement of the blind if such materials are imported by institutions or organizations approved by the competent authorities for duty-free entry under the agreement-but the Protocol is additionally helpful in setting forth illustrative categories of materials, including "instruments specifically adapted for the use of the blind." Annex E is mandatory.

A further major accomplishment of Annex E of the Protocol is to provide duty-free treatment to materials specially designed for the education, employment and social advancement of other physically or mentally handicapped persons, when such materials are directly imported by institutions or organizations concerned with the education of, or assistance to such persons. This treatment is extended on the condition that the importing institution or organization is approved by the competent authorities of the importing country for the purpose of duty-free entry, provided that equivalent articles are not being manufactured in the importing country.

The provisions of this annex have the strong support of interest groups in the United States. These groups believe implementation would provide substantial benefits to blind and other handicapped persons in this country. In addition, adoption would demonstrate to the world our concern for the rights of handicapped persons. ANNEX F: SPORTS EQUIPMENT; ANNEX G: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND OTHER MUSICAL EQUIPMENT; ANNEX H: MATERIAL AND EQUIPMENT USED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BOOKS, PUBLICATIONS AND DOCUMENTS The United States does not intend to adhere to these three optional Annexes of the Protocol. Adoption would lead to an increase of imports potentially injurious to domestic industry, and would not provide offsetting benefits.

ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS

Two additional provisions of the Protocol warrant mention. Part VII, paragraph 10 allows those parties to the Agreement which are developing countries to suspend or limit their obligations under the Protocol regarding the importation of any object or material which causes or threatens to cause "serious injury to the nascent indigenous industry in the developing country." To take advantage of this provision, countries are required to advise UNESCO of their intent to take restrictive actions and to apply them in a non-discriminatory manner.

The second significant provision is Part VIII, paragraph 14(a) which opens the Protocol for signature by all states parties to the Agreement, including customs and economic unions, provided that all the member states constituting them are also parties to the Protocol. Paragraph 14(a) further provides that reference to the terms "State" or "Country" as used in the Protocol shall be taken to refer also, as the context may require, to customs or economic unions, and in all matters falling in their competence to the "whole of their territories" of their member States and not to the "territory" of each of these States. The effect of these provisions is to provide potential opportunities for expanded exports of American goods, particularly to the European Economic Community (EC). However, the manner in which the EC implements the provisions of the Protocol, particularly those provisions dealing with the equivalency of domestic products, will have an important influence on the extent to which the United States can take advantage of those opportunities.

Paragraph 16(a) of the Protocol allows states at the time of acceptance or ratification to indicate those optional Parts or Annexes by which they intend to be bound, as well as to indicate whether they intend to be bound by Annex C.1 only on a reciprocal basis. The United States intends to declare that we will be bound by all Parts of the Protocol. However, as previously indicated, we do not intend to adhere to Annexes F, G, and H, since it has been determined that adherence to these provisions would not be in the best interests of the United States. Additionally, the United States intends to adhere unconditionally to Annex C.1. It is expected that the United States' unconditional adherence will induce other States to extend reciprocal benefits.

Ratification of the Protocol will provide important benefits to the United States including: lower costs to the American consumer of books, films, sound recordings and other educational, scientific and cultural materials; expanded markets abroad for U.S. exports of the same products; and lower cost materials for the advancement of the blind and other handicapped in the United States. The major private sector interest groups support ratification for the same reasons just enumerated. Our instrument of ratification will not be forwarded to the Secretary General of UNESCO until the implementing legislation is enacted. Such legislation is currently being considered by the interested agencies. It is hoped that the Senate will give its advice and consent regarding the Protocol at an early date.