Point/Counterpoint
Arguments for and against U.S. accession to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea are expected to become even more heat- ed as the end of 112th Congressional session nears.
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Groves said the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA) of 1980 set forth the mechanism for com- panies like Lockheed Martin to obtain its licenses to engage in deep seabed mining and to renew their claims in the eastern Pacific Ocean. These licenses were obtained by Lockheed nearly 40 years ago and are known as legacy claims that pre-date the Law of the Sea, he maintains.
Under U.S. and international law, Groves said Lockheed Martin has every right and ability to engage in deep seabed mining.
“These [legacy claims] go back to pre-Law of the Sea Treaty. They had to be specifically written into the annexes of the Treaty, and so we [the United States] have those claims,” Groves said, underscoring the argument that DSHMRA already covers rights and titles over claims in international waters.
“Lockheed Martin has just decided at this point in time that it is not economically feasible for them to do it. Now what they do, and what’s their right as a company to do, is lobby the Senate, making a claim. This is not a fact, this is not set in granite, this is a claim that they need the treaty in order to get the necessary certainty to engage in the expensive process of deep seabed mining.”
Bill Eichbaum, vice president, Marine and Arctic Policy, at the World Wildlife Fund, said that such a scenario would be easier to grapple with as a member of the Convention.
“In terms of the environmental communities, the fact is today, under the Treaty, there is a regime for managing claims for deep seabed mining,” he said. “Countries and companies are pursuing those claims and going forward, and the United States is [not pres- ent] for managing that system.
“One of the things we believe is that the United States tends to be, as compared with most other countries, a pretty good environmental steward. And, so, if the United States was at the table helping to set the standards, helping to set the regulatory scheme, it would probably be, from an environmental perspective, better than it is likely to be with the United States not at the table,” he said.
“What many observers fail to understand about Law of the Sea is that the Convention already forms the basis of maritime law regardless of whether the United States is a party,” Lugar said in opening remarks at the May hearings. “International decisions related to resource exploitation, navigation rights and other mat- ters will be made in the context of the Convention, whether we join or not. Because of this, there is virtual unanimity in favor of this treaty among people who actually deal with oceans on a daily basis and invest their money in job-creating activities on the oceans.”
U.S. industry and trade groups have fallen in behind the Law of the Sea Convention in order to be able to sponsor U.S.-based businesses in operations that involve territory within and beyond America’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and particularly in the Arctic, areas that call for “the maximum level of international legal certainty,” Clinton said at the May hearing.
To that end, American companies like Lockheed Martin, which has a 40-year history in sea floor exploration and is known as a “pioneer investor” under terms of the Convention, refuse to pursue exploitation of minerals as a U.S. operation without being party to the Convention, because it is the accepted international framework for obtaining secure title to deep seabed mining claims.