58 



Participation in the PrepCom (the so-called Ticket of 

 Admission problem) was thoroughly < debated . Industrialized 

 countries expressing a view preferred that signatories of the 

 Final Act be full particpants in the work of the PrepCom and 

 its decisionmaking procedures since that would provide the 

 broadest possible participation in the PrepCom. Developing 

 countries demanded that full participation be reserved for 

 signatories of the convention so that only those who had 

 already, indicated their intent to become parties to the con- 

 vention could become full members of the PrepCom. 



The WG-21, after reviewing the broad issues involved in 

 the PrepCom, shifted to a more private atmosphere in which 

 only members of the WG-21 and the co-chairmen were present. 

 Chairman Engo then led the group through a paragraph by 

 paragraph review of the resolution text with a view toward 

 producing another iteration. 



The process proved to be slow and contentious. Never- 

 theless, the WG-21 came close to completing a sentence by 

 sentence review of the text. 



Chairman Engo's report on the session -contained no new 

 drafts or suggestions for the text. The report described in 

 a general manner the activities of the session and' noted 

 efforts made to develop consensus. 



The U.S. Delegation confined its participation in the 

 debate to noting our need to review Law of the Sea issues. 

 In the case of PrepCom issues, the U.S. Delegation noted that 

 the PrepCom could not be discussed in isolation from other 

 issues which would be under review in the U.S. in coming 

 months. 



Other Issues 



Other Committee I issues were referred to in passing 

 only and the texts of Part XI and Annexes III and IV were 

 given no substantive discussion. Private conversation indi- 

 cated that most delegates were awaiting the outcome of the 

 U.S. review before making any further moves. 



The site of the Seabed Authority was discussed and 

 support was registered for Jamaica. The African Group and 

 the Latin American Group stated tht it was the consensus of 

 their groups that Jamaica should eventually be chosen. Fiji 

 and Malta (the other countries which have offered to host the 

 Seabed Authority) found discussion of the issue at that time 

 inappropriate. 



