The treaty in question is the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST). It was drafted more than 20 years ago at the behest of Soviet Bloc and "nonaligned" nations as the centerpiece of their so-called "New International Economic Order," a scheme to transfer wealth from the industrialized to the developing world. Ronald Reagan objected to LOST's creation of a supranational agency to govern the world's oceans at the expense of U.S. sovereignty and America's capacity to utilize and assure freedom of the seas. When American concerns were ignored or simply voted down, he refused to sign the accord. The treaty has not improved with age, despite claims by its supporters that Mr. Reagan's objections have subsequently been addressed. For example, it still allows an international organization for the first time to collect revenues from U.S. taxpayers as the price for exploiting the world's seabeds. LOST also would still infringe in significant ways on the movement and activities of U.S. military and intelligence operations at sea. It still would oblige the U.S. to transfer sensitive data and technology to potentially hostile nations.
Note last paragraph as it applies to WOT. |