Title 19, Customs DutiesRelease 119-110
§2051 Implementation of the Agreement; Executive Designation and Duty of Federal Agencies
Title 19 › CHAPTER 9 — VISUAL AND AUDITORY MATERIALS OF EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND CULTURAL CHARACTER › § 2051
Summary
The President may pick one or more federal agencies to carry out the Agreement about sharing educational visual and audio materials between countries. Those agencies must take steps, including making rules, to put the Agreement into action. The agencies cannot refuse to call a film or recording "internationally educational" just because it takes a viewpoint, could be misunderstood, is not fully representative or up-to-date (unless it has widespread, serious falsehoods), or does not clearly promote goodwill unless its main purpose is not to teach or inform and it does not help spread knowledge. If a work is given a certificate under the Agreement, the agencies may not label it as propaganda.
Full Legal Text
Title 19, §2051
Customs Duties, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
The President of the United States is authorized to designate a Federal agency or agencies which shall be responsible for carrying out the provisions of the Agreement for Facilitating the International Circulation of Visual and Auditory Materials of an Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Character and a related protocol of signature, opened for signature at Lake Success on July 15, 1949 (hereinafter in this chapter referred to as the “Agreement”). It shall be the duty of the Federal agency or agencies so designated to take appropriate measures for the carrying out of the provisions of the Agreement including the issuance of regulations. In carrying out this section, such Federal agency or agencies may not consider visual or auditory material to fail to qualify as being of international educational character—
(1)because it advocates a particular position or viewpoint, whether or not it presents or acknowledges opposing viewpoints;
(2)because it might lend itself to misinterpretation, or to misrepresentation of the United States or other countries, or their people or institutions;
(3)because it is not representative, authentic, or accurate or does not represent the current state of factual knowledge of a subject or aspect of a subject unless the material contains widespread and gross misstatements of fact;
(4)because it does not augment international understanding and goodwill, unless its primary purpose or effect is not to instruct or inform through the development of a subject or an aspect of a subject and its content is not such as to maintain, increase, or diffuse knowledge; or
(5)because in the opinion of the agency the material is propaganda.
Such Federal agency or agencies may not label as propaganda any material that receives a certificate of international educational character under this section and the Agreement.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Amendments
1991—Pub. L. 102–138 inserted provisions at end limiting the authority of a Federal agency or agencies to fail to qualify visual or auditory material as being of international educational character and providing that any material that receives a certificate of international educational character not be labeled as propaganda.
Executive Documents
Ex. Ord. No. 11311. Implementation of Beirut Agreement Relating to Audio-Visual Materials Ex. Ord. No. 11311, Oct. 14, 1966, 31 F.R. 13413, provided: By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, including the provisions of the Joint Resolution of October 8, 1966, Public Law 89–634 [this chapter and amendment to section 1202 of this title], and section 301 of Title 3 of the United States Code, I hereby order and proclaim that— 1. Pursuant to section 3(b) of the Joint Resolution, the
Amendments
to the Tariff Schedules of the United States made by section 3(a) of the Joint Resolution shall apply with respect to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, on and after January 1, 1967. 2. Pursuant to the “Agreement for Facilitating the International Circulation of Visual and Auditory Materials of an Educational, Scientific and Cultural Character”, made at Beirut in 1948, the Joint Resolution, and headnote 1 to schedule 8, part 6 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States, the United States Information Agency is hereby designated as the agency to carry out the provisions of the Agreement and related protocol, and to make any determinations and to prescribe any
Regulations
required by headnote 1. Lyndon B. Johnson. [For abolition of United States Information Agency (other than Broadcasting Board of Governors and International Broadcasting Bureau),
Transfer of Functions
, and treatment of references thereto, see section 6531, 6532, and 6551 of Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse.]
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
19 U.S.C. § 2051
Title 19, Customs Duties
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110