[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 31 (Monday, August 9, 1993)]
[Page 1585]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting a United Nations Convention on 
International Trade Law

 August 6, 1993

To the Senate of the United States:

    With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to 
accession, I transmit herewith the United Nations Convention on the 
Limitation Period in the International Sale of Goods done at New York on 
June 14, 1974, and the Protocol amending the Convention done at Vienna 
on April 11, 1980. Also transmitted for the information of the Senate is 
the report of the Department of State with respect to the Convention.
    This is the second Convention in the field of international sales of 
goods law produced by the United Nations Commission on International 
Trade Law (UNCITRAL) that has been transmitted to the Senate for its 
advice and consent. The first, the 1980 United Nations Convention on 
Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, was ratified by the 
United States and entered into force for this country on January 1, 
1988. Both of these Conventions establish uniform international 
standards in the commercial law of sales of goods in order to facilitate 
commerce and trade. Both benefit the United States by removing 
artificial impediments to commerce that arise from differences between 
the national legal systems that govern international sales of goods.
    The Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Private International 
Law, on which 11 national legal organizations are represented, in May 
1989, and the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, in 
August 1989, endorsed U.S. accession to the Convention and amending 
Protocol, subject to a U.S. declaration permitted under Article XII of 
the Protocol. The declaration is set forth with reasons in the 
accompanying report of the Department of State.
    I recommend that the Senate promptly give its advice and consent to 
accession to this Convention together with its amending Protocol.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
August 6, 1993.