Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

entities. Many of them included mining companies that had capital, or access
to capital and therefore a situation would be created that seemed somehow
unfair between Authority and the consortia. The United States in response
stated that the industrialized countries could contribute towards the first
operation of the Enterprise in the following way: one half of the capital
required for the operation would be contributed in cash by States parties and
the other half would be in the form of bonds to be deposited with the
Authority or to be used to raise funds or cashed if this became necessary. This
formula was incorporated in the provisions contained in article 11 of Annex
IV of the Convention.
The next issue was technology, because even if money was available,
the Enterprise had neither the technology nor the technical know-how to
actually participate in the parallel system. To that question, the answer
provided was that there would be some provision for making technology
available on a fair and reasonable commercial basis in the Convention. That is
the fundamental basis on which the whole parallel system developed, and
that is how the system for nodules was provided for in the Convention.
The subsequent 1994 Implementation Agreement eliminated the
provision that required states parties to contribute in cash or in the
establishment of bonds b for the first operation of the Enterprise. Instead, it
substituted a joint-venture operation for the first operation of the Enterprise,
and thereafter it requires the Council to determine how subsequent operations
will proceed. The 1994 Implementation Agreement also addressed the
ideological problem with the transfer of technology provisions in the
Convention. As the transfer of technology provisions evolved in the
Convention they came to be seen as provisions for compulsory transfer of
technology rather than technology transfer in the context of the dual or
parallel system. The final formulation for transfer of technology in the
Convention was as follows: if the Enterprise or a developing country
operating in the seabed was not able to otherwise obtain technology in the
open market, then the Authority could ask the contractor to make available
the same technology at a fair and reasonable commercial price. That
provision was modified in the1994 Implementation Agreement so that States
whose nationals have the technology are required to assist in obtaining the
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 48