U.S. has unique reserved seat on International Seabed Authority but only if it ratifies treaty

Second, once the United States becomes a Party, we would have an unprecedented ability to influence deep seabed mining activities worldwide. In revising the Convention’s deep seabed provisions in the 1994 Agreement, our negotiators obtained a permanent U.S. seat on the seabed Council. This is the key decision-making 12 body established by the Convention on deep seabed matters. I know of no other international body that accords one country, and one country only – the United States – a permanent seat on its decision making body. In this way, the Convention’s institutions provide the United States with a level of influence commensurate with our interests and global standing. Until we join, however, our reserved seat remains empty. As a result, we have limited ability to shape the rules and no ability to help U.S. companies pursue their jobcreating initiatives to exploit deep seabed resources.