Yesterday Politico posted an article by Senator John Kerry giving his views on why America needs to ratify the Law of The Sea Treaty (LOST). On Monday, the Center for Security Policy posted an article on why America should not ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty. I suggest you read both and then draw your own conclusions.
There are, however, a few things I would like to point out. This treaty has been kicking around since the 1980’s when President Reagan strongly opposed it because of its negative impact on American sovereignty.
Some basic problems with the LOST treaty (aptly named):
“Article 81 of the treaty would require the US. and all nations to pay a
portion of royalties from the use of the sea’s natural resources to the
International Seabed Authority in Kingston, Jamaica. If ratified this
nation would be required to transfer part of any royalties realized from
the drilling of oil resources found on the U.S. continental shelf —
defined as 200 nautical miles or more from shore — for redistribution to
poorer, landlocked countries. This could amount to billions of dollars.”
The treaty would give a U.N. body veto power over the use of U.S. territorial
water and to which we’d be required to give half of our offshore oil
revenue to third world countries.”
I don’t claim to be unbiased in this discussion, but there are a few obvious things going on here. This is an election year. There is a very good chance that the Senate that would be voting on the LOST treaty will not be the same Senate that will be in Washington in January. Why is the Senate voting on this now? It is not a time-sensitive issue and should not be voted on in what will most certainly be a lame-duck Senate. There is also a strong possibility that as Americans make plans for their summer vacations, they are not paying attention to what is going on in Washington. This is the Senate equivalent of the Friday afternoon document dump–the Senate wants to do this while no one is looking.
This treaty needs to be voted down. Hopefully, the Senators in Congress will realize that.
