Proclamation 4726

by Jimmy Carter

APPLICATION OF CERTAIN LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

The Northern Mariana Islands, as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, are administered by the United States under a Trusteeship Agreement between the United States and the Security Council of the United Nations (61 Stat. 3301). Pursuant to Article 6, paragraph 2 of the Trusteeship Agreement, the United States has undertaken to promote the economic advancement and selfsufficiency of the inhabitants and to encourage the development of the fisheries of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

The United States and the Northern Mariana Islands have entered into a Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America (Public Law 94-241; 90 Stat. 263) pursuant to which many provisions of the laws of the United States have become applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands as of January 9, 1978 (Proclamation No. 4534, Sec. 2). Section 1004(a) of the Covenant provides that if the President finds a provision of the Constitution or laws of the United States to be inconsistent with the Trusteeship Agreement, the application of that provision to the Northern Mariana Islands may be suspended until the termination of that Agreement.

Certain provisions of the vessel documentation laws of the United States, applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands, prevent citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands from using foreign built, United States registered fishing vessels owned by such citizens or owned by or in the custody of the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands to fish in the territorial sea and fishery conservation zone around the Northern Mariana Islands and to land their catch of fish in the Northern Mariana Islands. Because of the considerable distance of the Northern Mariana Islands from American shipyards and resultant high transportation costs associated with the purchase of American-built ships for use in the Northern Marianas fisheries, this result is inconsistent with the undertakings assumed by the United States in the Trusteeship Agreement to provide for the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants and to encourage the development of the fisheries of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Now, THEREFORE, I, JIMMY CARTER, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including Section 1004(a) of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, do hereby find, declare and proclaim as follows:

1. Any provision of the vessel documentation laws of the United States which prevents the citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands or the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands from using foreign-built, United States registered fishing vessels, owned by such citizens or owned by or in the custody of the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands, to fish in the territorial sea and fishery conservation zone around the Northern Marlaria Islands and to land their catch of fish in the Northern Mariana Islands, including that part of R.S. 4132, as amended, 46 U.S.C. 11, which reads "* * * which are to engage only in trade with foreign countries, with the Islands of Guam, Tutuila, Wake, Midway, and Kingman Reef * * *," would be inconsistent with the objectives of the Trusteeship Agreement to the extent it has this effect.

2. The application of any such provision to foreign-built, United States registered fishing vessels owned by citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands or owned by or in the custody of the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands, is suspended to the extent it is inconsistent as described in Section 1 above until the termination of the Trusteeship Agreement for the Former Japanese Mandated Islands in the Pacific (61 Stat. 3301). Foreign-built fishing vessels owned by citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands or owned by or in the custody of the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands may therefore be registered under R.S. 4132, as amended, 46 U.S.C. 11, and any restrictive endorsement upon such register, prescribed by 46 CFR 67.63-9(b) pursuant to 46 U.S.C. 11, shall be without effect insofar as it would prevent the citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands or the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands from using foreign-built, United States registered fishing vessels owned by such citizens or owned by or in the custody of the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands to fish in the territorial sea and fishery conservation zone surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands and to land their catch of fish in the Northern Mariana Islands.

3. For the purposes of this proclamation, the seaward limit of the fishery conservation zone surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands is 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, except that to the north of the Northern Mariana Islands, the limit of the fishery conservation zone shall be determined by Straight lines connecting the following points:
1. 20 degrees 52'42"N., 141 degrees 20'53"E.
2. 23 degrees 02'19"N., 144 degrees 00'56"E.
3. 23 degrees 53'25"N., 145 degrees 05'59"E.
and, except that to the south of the Northern Mariana Islands, the limit of the fishery conservation zone shall be determined by straight lines connecting the following points:

4. 15 degrees 43'28"N, 142'05'43"E.
5. 14'55'18"N., 143 degrees 15'29"E.
6. 14'47'43"N., 143026'23"E.
7. 14 degrees 30'07'N., 143'51'50"E.
8. 14 degrees 11'10"N., 144'26'36"E.
9. 14'05'34"N., 144 degrees 36'47"E.
10. 13'57'14"N., 144'51'43"E.
11. 13 degrees 5311"N., 144059'19"E.
12. 13'51'18"N., 145'03'00"E.
13. 13 degrees 51'16"N., 145 degrees 03'05"E.
14. 13 degrees 51'00"N., 145 degrees 03'36"E.
15. 13 degrees 50'11"N., 45 degrees 06'15"E'
16. 13 degrees 49'15"N., 145 degrees 08'37"E.
17. 13 degrees 47'40"N., 145 degrees 12'31"E.
18. 13 degrees 46'00"N., 145 degrees 16'14"E.
19. 13 degrees 45'27"N., 145 degrees 17'23"E.
20. 13 degrees 41'18"N., 145 degrees 26'08"E.
21. 13 degrees 37'16"N., 145 degrees 34'33"E.
22. 13 degrees 36'23"N., 145 degrees 36'21"E.
23. 13 degrees 35'54"N., 145 degrees 37'14"E.
24. 13 degrees 16'24"N., 146 degrees 12'14"E.
25. 13 degrees 05'18"N., 146 degrees 32'02"E.
26. 13 degrees 00'17"N., 146 degrees 41'05"E.
27. 12 degrees 33'02"N., 147 degrees 29'57"E.
28. 12 degrees 14'34"N., 148 degrees 03'11"E.
29. 12 degrees 13'55"N., 148 degrees 04'31"E.

4. For the purposes of this proclamation, a "citizen of the Northern Mariana Islands" is defined as: (1) an individual citizen of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands who is exclusively domiciled, within the meaning of Section 1005 (e) of the Covenant, in the Northern Mariana Islands; (2) a partnership, unincorporated company, or association whose members are all citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands as defined in (1) above; or (3) a corporation incorporated under the laws of the Northern Mariana Islands, of which the president or other chief executive officer and the chairman of the board of directors are citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands as defined in (1) above and no more of its directors than a minority of the number necessary to constitute a quorum are not citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands as defined in (1) above.

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

JIMMY CARTER

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 3:41 p.m., February 22, 1980]