[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 173 (Wednesday, September 8, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 48701-48702]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-23460]


 
 
                         Presidential Documents 
 
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 173 / Wednesday, August 8, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

 ___________________________________________________________________

 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 48701]]

                Proclamation 7219 of August 2, 1999

                
Contiguous Zone of the United States

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                International law recognizes that coastal nations may 
                establish zones contiguous to their territorial seas, 
                known as contiguous zones.

                The contiguous zone of the United States is a zone 
                contiguous to the territorial sea of the United States, 
                in which the United States may exercise the control 
                necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, 
                fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws and regulations 
                within its territory or territorial sea, and to punish 
                infringement of the above laws and regulations 
                committed within its territory or territorial sea.

                Extension of the contiguous zone of the United States 
                to the limits permitted by international law will 
                advance the law enforcement and public health interests 
                of the United States. Moreover, this extension is an 
                important step in preventing the removal of cultural 
                heritage found within 24 nautical miles of the 
                baseline.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, by the authority 
                vested in me as President by the Constitution of the 
                United States, and in accordance with international 
                law, do hereby proclaim the extension of the contiguous 
                zone of the United States of America, including the 
                Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the 
                United States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the 
                Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory or 
                possession over which the United States exercises 
                sovereignty, as follows:

                The contiguous zone of the United States extends to 24 
                nautical miles from the baselines of the United States 
                determined in accordance with international law, but in 
                no case within the territorial sea of another nation.

                In accordance with international law, reflected in the 
                applicable provisions of the 1982 Convention on the Law 
                of the Sea, within the contiguous zone of the United 
                States the ships and aircraft of all countries enjoy 
                the high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight and 
                the laying of submarine cables and pipelines, and other 
                internationally lawful uses of the sea related to those 
                freedoms, such as those associated with the operation 
                of ships, aircraft, and submarine cables and pipelines, 
                and compatible with the other provisions of 
                international law reflected in the 1982 Convention on 
                the Law of the Sea.

                Nothing in this proclamation:

                    (a)L amends existing Federal or State law;
                    (b)L amends or otherwise alters the rights and 
                duties of the United States or other nations in the 
                Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States 
                established by Proclamation 5030 of March 10, 1983; or
                    (c)L impairs the determination, in accordance with 
                international law, of any maritime boundary of the 
                United States with a foreign jurisdiction.

[[Page 48702]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                second day of September, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-fourth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 99-23460
Filed 9-7-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P