U.S. membership of fisheries agency forum’s key issue

Press, 20 September 1978, Page 2

U.S. membership of fisheries agency forum’s key issue

NZPA Aloft (Niue] The South Pacific Forum yesterday decided to go ahead and establish a South Pacific Fisheries Agency — but without the United States.

The 12 forum members, after a day-long discussion, agreed not to endorse a draft convention which would have given the United States and other countries membership of the agency. Instead, they asked officials from the forum countries to report, within six months, on any changes neded in the proposed agency and the convention setting it up. The New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said after yesterday’s session that some members could not agree to the convention if the United States was in the agency, and at least one member said it could not agree to it if the United States was not a member.

“The stumbling block was the United States with its tuna fishing activities,” Mr Muldoon said. United States membership of the agency would have meant that the Americans, who do not recognise other countries’ jurisdiction over migratory fish such as tuna, (would have to control their (fishing vessels in the South Pacific countries’ 200-mile zones.

This would have meant payment of fishing royalties to these nations. But the Prime Minister of Western Samoa, Tupuola Efi, said that some members of

the forum were not sure whether United States membership of the fisheries agency wou,d in fact, give them the rights they wanted over United States tuna fishermen.

The United States has told the forum that the draft convention was acceptable to it but it would still have to be ratified by Congress. Tupuola Efi told newsmen after the first forum session that three different possibilities had been raised as alternatives to the draft convention.

These were: That the fisheries agency should be an exclusively South Pacific forum body; That it should be put under the umbrella of the South Pacific Commis sion so that non-forum members could be brought in; and that non-forum countries could have associate membership of the fisheries agency. Tupulao Efi declined to spell out the position of individual member countries on the issue. “We are treading on very delicate ground now and wrong emphasis or the wrong word might lead us into more trouble,” he said. New Zealand supports the inclusion of the United States in the agency. Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands were yesterday formally admitted as members o; the South Pacific Forum. The Solomons celebrated independence last July and Tuvalu will follow suit at the end of this month. The two new members

bring total membership of the forum to 12. The other members are Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Western Samoa, Tonga, Gilbert Islands, Cook Islands, Nauru and Niue. The Solomon Islands, the third most populous island country after Papua New Guinea and Fiji became independent on July 7, 1978, two years and a half after achieving self-government in May, 1976. Tuvalu, formerly the Ellice Islands of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands group, consists of nine coral atolls due north of Fiji and just south of the Equator. The islands, scattered across 350 nautical miles from the north to south, are all low and flat — the highest land being about 5 metres above sea level.

The total population is about 10,000 Polynesians, of whom about 2000 live and work overseas.

Tuvalu separated from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony on October 1, 1975. Full internal self-government was achieved on May 9, 1978. Tuvalu will become a constitutional monarchy with the Queen as head of State, represented by a Tuvaluan governor-general. There will be a singlechamber parliament of 12 members elected by universal adult suffrage. The cabinet will comprise a Prime Minister and up to four other Ministers. The life of the parliament will not exceed four years.