[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 2 (Monday, January 15, 2001)]
[Page 49]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting the Protocol To Amend the 1949 
Convention on the Establishment of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna 
Commission With Documentation

January 8, 2001

To the Senate of the United States:

    With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to 
ratification, I transmit herewith the Protocol to Amend the 1949 
Convention on the Establishment of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna 
Commission, done at Guayaquil, June 11, 1999, and signed by the United 
States, subject to ratification, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on the same 
date. In addition, I transmit, for the information of the Senate, the 
report of the Department of State with respect to the Protocol. The 
Protocol will not require implementing legislation.
    The Protocol amends the Convention for the Establishment of an 
Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, done at Washington May 31, 
1949, and entered into force March 3, 1950 (the ``Convention''), to 
allow the European Union to become a member of the Inter-American 
Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) created under the Convention. 
Presently, the Convention is only open to governments of states. The 
Protocol will, upon entry into force, allow regional economic 
integration organizations like the European Union to become a party to 
the Convention and a full member of the IATTC provided all parties to 
the Convention give their consent to such adherence. The Protocol also 
provides that the Member States of any regional economic integration 
organization that is allowed to adhere to the Protocol are barred from 
joining or continuing as a party to the Convention except with respect 
to the Member States' territories that are outside the territorial scope 
of the treaty establishing the regional economic integration 
organization.
    Allowing the European Union to accede to the Convention is important 
to the United States because it would mean that the vessels operating 
under the jurisdiction of the European Union and its Member States would 
be bound by the conservation and management measures adopted by the 
IATTC for the fishery resources of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
    I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration 
to the Protocol and give its advice and consent to ratification.
                                            William J. Clinton
 The White House,
 January 8, 2001.