U.S. POLICY AND THE THIRD UNITED NATIONS 

 CONFERENCE ON THE LAW OF THE SEA 



THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1981 



House of Representatives, 

 Committee on Foreign Affairs, 



Washington, D.C. 



The committee met at 3 p.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House 

 Office Building, Hon. Clement J. Zablocki (chairman of the commit- 

 tee) presiding. 



Chairman Zablocki. The committee will come to order. 



This afternoon we meet to continue consideration of the U.S. 

 participation in the negotiations of the United Nations Third Con- 

 ference on the Law of the Sea. 



On April 29, Mr. James Malone, the head of the U.S. delegation 

 to the Conference, testified before the committee on the status of 

 the negotiations at the 10th session and the administration's policy 

 review. Mr. Malone indicated several problems he has with the 

 deep seabed mining provisions of the draft convention. He also said 

 that the administration would carry out a thorough review of U.S. 

 policy which would not be concluded until after the resumed 10th 

 session of the Conference this August in Geneva. Thus the United 

 States would not be prepared to participate in the Geneva meeting 

 in a substantive way. Members of the committee expressed consid- 

 erable concern with the timing of the review and urged the admin- 

 istration to complete the review in a balanced and expeditious 

 manner hopefully, in time for the August session. 



Today we welcome Elliot Richardson, former head of the U.S. 

 delegation to the Conference and currently president of the Depart- 

 ment of State's Advisory Committee on the Law of the Sea. We are 

 glad to have you with us and look forward to having your views of 

 the negotiations and U.S. participation. 



I understand you have a prepared statement. Do you want to 

 begin with that and either summarize or read it for the record? 



STATEMENT OF ELLIOT RICHARDSON, PRESIDENT, DEPART- 

 MENT OF STATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE LAW OF 

 THE SEA 



Mr. Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the 

 committee. 



I do have a prepared statement, and judging from experience, 

 Mr. Chairman, I suspect I can deliver the whole statement verba- 

 tim more quickly than any adlibbed summary. 



I do appreciate the opportunity to be here, Mr. Chairman. 



(27) 



