632 



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delegations have put forward the proposal that the Convention 

 area include both the 200-mile coastal zones of potential parties 

 and the contiguous high sea areas. From 7-16 November 1983, 

 representatives from the United States and approximately twenty 

 other nations will meet in Noumea, New Caledonia to negotiate 

 agreement on the draft Convention and dumping protocol in the 

 hope that those documents can be presented to a plenipotentiary 

 diplomatic conference in 1984 for final agreement and opening for 

 signatures. 



Hopefully, the Department of State's testimony today will 

 explain the U.S. position that will be presented in Noumea. In 

 that regard, we believe that the U.S. position should have been 

 developed with an opportunity for timely public review and 

 comment. The EPA/Department of State-sponsored Ocean Dumping 

 Advisory Committee offers one useful mechanism for such outside 

 review, but the Department of State chose not to use that forum, 

 except for a very limited response to requests for information. 



For purposes of the Noumea meeting, we have heard that the 

 United States' position on radioactive waste dumping in the South 

 Pacific will be that of opposition to any regional ban. Instead, 

 the U.S. will recommend that nations in that region rely on 

 national measures which are limited in geographical scope to 

 their 200-mile coastal zones. Such a position suggests support 

 for the Law of the Sea Convention's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) 

 concept, while at the same time ignoring that Convention's 

 repeated references to the need for cooperative action among 

 coastal states.^ It also fails to take into consideration the 



