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A treaty diluted

  • 29/11/1994

The law accepts the basic principle that there can be no free lunches in a high risk, capital-intensive venture like deep seabed mining. As a direct fallout, the role of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and its business arm, the Enterprise, has been drastically scaled down.

The original regime for deep seabed envisaged a parallel regime where half the number of the mine sites would be reserved for the Enterprise for exploration and exploitation or, alternatively, made available to developing countries. The remaining half would be mined by contractors -that is, any private sector applicant or a nation. The Enterprise was to get Financial and technological backing from industrialised countries.

Under the new dispensation, the Enterprise will have to function much like any other corporation in the market because it will have to raise technology and funds through joint ventures with the private sector.

Although the composition and strength of the 36-member ISA Council remains the same, decision-making is now effectively in the hands of the industrialised nations. According to Elliot Richardson, chairperson of the ill-fated 1981 US delegation to UNClOS III, "We, along with any 2 other industrialised countries on the ISA Council, will be able to block any decisions that may be detrimental to us. We will also have a decisive voice in the budget and in determining the system by which a share of revenues earned from mining by private companies is distributed to member states."

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