Sense of the Congress Resolution that the United States Should Not Ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty
SENSE OF THE CONGRESS RESOLUTION THAT THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT RATIFY THE LAW OF THE SEA TREATY -- (Extensions of Remarks - February 10, 2005)
SPEECH OF
HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2005
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce a Resolution expressing the Sense of the Congress that the United States should not ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty ("LOST").
The Law of the Sea Treaty was conceived in the early 1970s by the "New International Economic Order," a United Nations political movement designed to transfer wealth and technology from the industrial nations to communist and undeveloped nations. President Ronald Reagan recognized the threat this treaty would pose to America's sovereignty and economic interests and rightly rejected the Treaty in 1982.
Treaty proponents acted again in the 1990s, offering a separate "Agreement" that purported to amend the Treaty. This "corrected treaty" was also deemed unacceptable by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1994. Now we are once again facing a terribly flawed treaty that will hand over more of our sovereignty to a corrupt United Nations-just at a time when the extent of the United Nations' corruption is becoming more evident through the oil for food scandal in Iraq.
What is specifically wrong with the Law of the Sea Treaty?
The Law of the Sea Treaty will deem the oceans of the Earth as the "Common Heritage of Mankind." The Treaty dictates that oceanic resources should be shared among all mankind. The effect of this will be U.N. control over the world's seabeds-a full 70 percent of the earth's surface.
The Law of the Sea Treaty will also create, for the first time in history, an international body with the authority to collect taxes from American citizens. It is truly a U.N. global tax. This will come about as a fee on private enterprise and nation states from seabed mining, offshore oil platforms, and other raw material recovery activities. These fees will first be paid by the governments of the signatory states, which will then have the burden of collecting the monies back from the private enterprises engaged in seabed mining activities.
This treaty will create a Law of the Sea Tribunal, which will claim-and already has claimed-jurisdiction over the onshore as well as within the territorial sea or economic zones of coastal nations. This U.N. Tribunal could very well rule in a manner contrary to U.S. military, counterterrorism, and commercial interests.
Mr. Speaker, the Law of the Sea Treaty is a perfect example of "taxation without representation" that our Founding Fathers rebelled against. We should under no circumstances surrender one bit of American sovereignty or treasure to the United Nations or any other global body. I hope my colleagues will join me by co-sponsoring this Sense of the Congress legislation and defeating this destructive treaty.
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