57 



One, which had been requested at the last session of the con- 

 ference by certain land-based producers of seabed metals, was 

 a definitive study of the operation of Article 151, paragraph 

 2 -- the Production Limitation ( A/Conf . 62/L. 66 ) . It was 

 accompanied by voluminous tables showing how much production 

 would be allowed under certain assumptions. 



A second report on financial implications of a Prepara- 

 tory Commission and start-up of the International Seabed 

 Authority ( A/Conf . 62/L. 65 ) was also presented in the First 

 Committee. This report gave costs for the operation, admi- 

 nistrative support and housing of the PrepCom given assumptions 

 made by the Secretariat about its size and duration. It also 

 costed out start-up of the Enterprise under certain assump- 

 tions. 



During discussion on the Production Limitation paper, 

 Zaire, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with Canadian support, urged that 

 the report be supplemented with work on the implications of 

 Article 151 for metal markets and the economies of relevant 

 countries. There was no broad support for this request. 



The Canadian Delegation followed this up with a proposal 

 that a technical group be formed to continue work on Article 

 151, paragraph 2, without specification of the Technical 

 Group's term of reference. This proposal was rejected by all 

 speakers except Zimbabwe, Zaire, and Zambia. 



Working Group of 21 



The Working Group of 21 (WG-21), of which the United 

 States is a member, met in sessions open to all delegations to 

 discuss the draft resolution to create the Preparatory Com- 

 mission contained in A/Conf .62/L. 55 . This group was co-chaired 

 by Paul Engo of Cameroon in his capacity as Chairman of 

 the First Committee and T.T.B. (Tommy) Koh of Singapore as 

 President of the Conference. The WG-21 then moved through 

 the Preparatory Commission resolution in a general fashion. 



The WG-21 began with a substantive debate on the status 

 of Preparatory Commission drafts of rules, regulations, and 

 procedures. G-77 delegates in general attacked Article 308, 

 paragraph 4, of the ICNT, Rev. 3, which specifies that the 

 PrepCom drafts of rules, regulations, and procedures will be 

 the provisional rules, regulations, and procedures of the Sea- 

 bed Authority until others are adopted by the Authority. 

 Generally, developed countries defended this approach as the 

 only way to assure those ratifying the treaty that the Seabed 

 Authority would operate in the manner foreseen by them. 



The decisionmaking procedures of the PrepCom were also 

 vigorously debated. 



