Potential regimes for deep seabed mining

An equitable international treaty, structured to encourage the recovery of seabed metals (primarily copper, manganese, cobalt, nickel) would, of course, be desirable. Unfortunately, seven years of negotiations in the U.N. Law of the Sea Conference have produced the opposite result, a current text "so had," in U.S. Ambassador Richardson\´s words, as to make it "totally unacceptable\´\´ to this country. Accordingly, Congress has shown its determination to proceed without further delay to enact domestic legislation, to encourage seabed mining so as to make the United States self-sufficient with respect to these four essential.minerals. The Murphy-Breaux bill, now well along in the House of Representatives, is founded on the constitutional concept of the power of Congress to regulate the activities of U.S. nationals engaged in the exercise of freedoms of the high seas. It does so by a system of licenses to engage in exploration, and permits to engage in commercial recovery, of seabed minerals, subject to elaborate environmental safeguards. The bill disclaims any intent to assert U.S. sovereignty over, or ownership of, the seabed. The bill also proposes a different kind of international regime, to be brought about through enactment, by the maritime countries engaged in deep sea mining, of reciprocal legislation which the President may find to be equivalent to this Act. The proposal is that each of the reciprocating States shall honor licenses issued by the other. Industry has testified that it can function under such a measure, but that if a treaty such as that now proposed were to be signed by the United States, all further investments would cease.