148. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon1 2
SUBJECT:
- Fisheries Agreement with Brazil
Attached at Tab A is a memorandum from the State Department describing a draft interim fisheries agreement with Brazil covering the period between now and the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference scheduled for 1973. The agreement protects our legal position as well as the interests of the US shrimp fishing industry which customarily fishes off the coast of northeast Brazil. It was made necessary when Brazil advanced a claim to adjacent waters out to a distance of 200 miles. The draft agreement is acceptable to the interested government agencies including: State, Defense and Commerce. We are confident the agreement, which will have to take the form of a treaty, will be approved by the Senate without difficulty.
The draft agreement was ad referendum. In view of the general consensus here that it favors our interests, we have instructed Ambassador Rountree to inform the Brazilians that we are prepared to initial it if they are. We believe the Brazilians regard the agreement as being in their interests and that they will be prepared to initial it. In a recent cable, Ambassador Rountree observed that our success in negotiating a favorable agreement and the relaxed atmosphere in which the negotiations took place was to a considerable extent the result of President Médici’s visit here in December 1971.
The draft agreement protects US interests without compromising Brazilian interests by resorting to the principle of conservation of a valuable international resource, a principle on which both countries can agree. Protective regulation of the shrimp fishery can be taken to be in the interest of both countries. Brazil is designated as the enforcing authority under the agreement and we are to pay them a modest fee ($200,000) annually to pay part of the enforcement expenses. The number of non-Brazilian vessels allowed to fish in the area is controlled by the agreement, but the number is sufficiently great so US fishermen will not be excluded from their traditional fishing grounds. The agreement specifically reserves; the juridical positions [Page 2] of both parties with respect to Law of the Sea matters. Thus, it allows Brazil to preserve its general claim to a 200 mile limit without facing a confrontation with the US, either over legal principles or as a result of its efforts to enforce unilateral regulations in the shrimp fishing zone.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 772, Country Files, Latin America, Brazil, Volume 2, August 1, 1971–December, 1972. Secret. Sent for information. A stamped notation on the memorandum indicates the President saw it. Tab A, dated April 10, is attached but not published. Preliminary talks between the United States and Brazil on fisheries took place from October 25 to October 30, 1971, resumed February 23, 1972, and were completed on March 6. Summary reports of the October talks and position papers for the February talks are ibid., RG 59, ARA/LA Assistant Secretary’s Files: Lot 73 D 139, Brazil–Fishery Talks, 1972. Telegrams and draft agreements from both the October and February talks are ibid., Central Files 1970–73, POL 33–4 BRAZ–US. Haig informed the President of the draft agreement on March 24. See Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. E–1, Documents on Global Issues, 1969–1972, Document 426.↩
- Kissinger stated that a draft fisheries agreement between the United States and Brazil both protected the U.S. legal position and the interests of its shrimp fishing industry.↩