La zona económica exclusiva: una perspectiva latinoamericana

Terence C. Bacon I CANADA'S 200· MILE FISHING ZONE ... Article 63 of.the draft convention by strengthening the language concerning the need to conserve stocks beyond 200 miles. A third problem area is trade. Accessto markets ror fish and fish products is becoming increasingly difficult. There is a growing trend to establish barriers to trade in those products, which in tuen can have and is having a negative effect on national enhancement, conservation, harvesting, and marketing policíes. Oúr nshing industry's capacity to flSh the totai allowable catches (set by the Department of Fisheries after consultations with the industry and based on best scientifIc advice) has increased to the poiot where very Httle or no surplus is available for distribution to traditional fishing partners with whom we have bilateral fisheries agreements. Canada has been attaching increased importance to securing access to foreign markets forCanadian flSh and fish products in return for allocations in Canadian waters, which may or may not be surplus to the Canadian fishing cápacity. This has been the case over the past year in our negotiations With Spain, Portugal, the EEC, the USSR and Poland. In effect, we. are fmding it necessary to seek 'to buy' into the European market at potentially high costs at home and abroad both poli– tical arid economic. And fmaIly, the inevitable problems between neighbours over the.division . of the off-shore resources fmd no easy solution in the law of the sea past, pre– sent or projected. As between Canada and the USA an imaginative attempt at problem avoidance wastried but failed. By establishing a permanent agree– ment on the fishery in the GulEof Maine, with joint management,joint access, and with specific shares in specific stocks, it was hoped the sting for either side in any eventual boundary agreement would be avoided. Pending the ad· judication of the boundary, the potential for frichon and the limitation on sound management of the living resources of the area remain. Ocean Development. If Canada, a relatively developed and technologically advanced country, is having its problems in dealing with the new opportunities and new responsa– bilities of its 200-mile fishing zone, what about the developing countries? They have made a significant input mto what has now become established international law. Having made this effort, do they have the wherewithal to realize the fuIl rewards offered by this new opportunity? Sadly, in many cases, they do noto What is the use of having control of marine scientific research in a 200-mile zone ir you do not have the means of participating meaningfulIy in all research within the zone? Resources jurisdiction is equaIly meaningless without envíronmental control and such control can only be exercised on the basis of the fullest possible understanding of the problems and of the techní– ques foc sound management. It was therefore against the background of considerations such as these that Prime Minister Trudeau recently announced 149