Committee are divided among its three subcommittees. 

 Subcommittee I is concerned with the future regime for the seabed 

 area beyond national jurisdiction and the powers and functions of 

 international machinery to administer this area. Subcommittee II 

 prepared a comprehensive list of issues for the Conference, including 

 issues concerning the regimes of the high seas, the continental shelf, 

 the territorial sea (including questions of its breadth), international 

 straits, and fisheries. Subcommittee III is concerned with marine 

 pollution and scientific research. 



The Seabed Committee met in Geneva for 4 weeks in July and 

 August 1972, in New York for 5 weeks in March and April 1973, and 

 is scheduled to meet in Geneva for 8 weeks during July and August 

 1973. 



At the July and August 1972 Seabed Committee meeting, Sub- 

 committee I devoted four sessions to a debate on seabed machinery 

 (i. e., the institutions and organization of the international seabed 

 regime). Discussion centered on the scope, structure, and functions 

 of the regime to be established. The United States continued to 

 maintain that the international seabed authority should have only 

 restricted licensing and management jurisdiction over seabed 

 resources, and should not be permitted to explore and exploit seabed 

 resources. 



The U.S. Delegation indicated that the United States would be 

 prepared to support the concept of broad coastal State jurisdiction 

 over resources in adjacent waters and seabed areas beyond the 

 territorial sea as part of an overall law-of-the-sea settlement if this 

 coastal state resource management jurisdiction were subject to 

 international standards. The standards would be designed to 

 prevent unreasonable interference with other uses of the ocean, to 

 protect against pollution, to protect the integrity of investment, to 

 provide for arrangements for the sharing of revenues for internation- 

 al community purposes, and to require compulsory settlement of 

 disputes. 



A Working Group in Subcommittee I considered draft principles 

 for a regime for the portion of the seabed beyond the limits of 

 national jurisdiction, based in part on the Declaration of Principles 

 adopted by the U. N. General Assembly in December 1970. The 

 Working Group reviewed, during the July and August 1972 session, 

 the draft proposals submitted to the Seabed Committee in an effort to 

 identify areas of agreement and disagreement. It then produced a set 

 of draft texts which reflected various points of view without 

 resolving differences. Among the issues considered were the 

 problem of definitions, the extent of the seabed area, questions of 

 whether resources should be limited to mineral wealth or should 

 include living resources as well, and whether resources are included 

 in the concept of common heritage. 



Within Subcommittee II, the United States continued to work 

 vigorously towards an agreement which would set a maximum 



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