42 



date in negotiations to again achieve long-term management 

 regimes for 1994 and beyond. Unfortunately, the PSC did not 

 reach any agreement on salmon fishing regimes at its annual 

 meeting in Vancouver in February 1994. The current task is 

 complicated by (1) the number of issues requiring simultaneous 

 resolution, (2) Canadian insistence that an understanding on 

 "equity issues" is a prerequisite to any agreement on future 

 fisheries management regimes, and (3) markedly different salmon 

 stock conditions (i.e., many Pacific Northwest Chinook and coho 

 salmon stocks are at record low levels, while many Canadian and 

 Alaskan salmon stocks are more robust) . 



Equity 



There is a Canadian perception that the United States receives 

 substantially greater benefits from salmon interceptions than 

 Canada does under the Treaty. As part of the one-year agreement 

 in 1993, the United States and Canada agreed, among other things, 

 to meet on a government -to -government basis in August 1993 to 

 begin discussions toward agreement on an equity process. Since 

 the August meeting, the two sides have held nine meetings on the 

 equity issue. They have exchanged papers outlining views as to 

 the framework within which the equity issue should be addressed. 

 A bilateral technical working group has met several times to 

 exchange views on methods of valuing benefits. However, little 

 common ground for agreement has emerged. The Canadian approach 

 envisions a narrow focus on calculating interceptions and 



