Australia Fails Fairness Test for East Timor
Complex Trade Agreement with U.S. Undermines Australia's Claim on Timor Boundary Talks
May 17, 2004 - On the eve of the signing of a free trade pact between the U.S. and Australia, the East Timor Action
Network (ETAN) urged Australia to speed up it its negotiations with East Timor on a permanent maritime boundary.
Trade representatives from both countries plan to sign the Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) in Washington
Tuesday.
"If Australia can negotiate a complex agreement of hundreds of pages in under a year, surely it can accelerate its talks
with East Timor over their maritime boundary," said John M. Miller, spokesperson for ETAN.
"Australia's claim that it cannot meet more than twice a year on the boundary is absurd. Delimiting the East
Timor-Australia boundary according to current international law should not take long," added Miller. "In the 1970s,
Australia negotiated far longer and more difficult maritime boundaries with Indonesia in just 2-1/2 years."
Australian and East Timorese officials held their first formal negotiating session in April, nearly two years after East
Timor called for talks.
"The US$1 million a day Australia is illegally taking from the Laminaria-Corallina oil field is certainly a lucrative
motive for stalling," added Miller.
"Australia's withdrawal from international dispute resolution mechanisms on boundary disputes should give pause. One
wonders whether Australia will withdraw from the AUSFTA's resolution mechanisms if it fears it won't get its way," said
Miller.
Background
Negotiations on the Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement began on March 17, 2003, and the completed agreement was
announced on February 8. Either country can withdraw from the agreement with six months written notification.
Substantial oil and natural gas deposits lie under the Timor Sea between Australia and East Timor. The fate of tens of
billions of dollars of revenue depend on a permanent boundary agreement.
East Timor, which became an independent nation in May 2002, has never had maritime boundaries.
In October 2002, East Timor enacted a Maritime Boundary Law, claiming a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone in all
directions, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Where neighboring claims overlap, as is the
case with East Timor and Australia, countries must negotiate a permanent maritime boundary, usually halfway between
their coastlines.
In March 2002, Australia officially withdrew from international legal mechanisms to resolve boundary issues that cannot
be settled by negotiation -- the International Court of Justice and the 1982 UNCLOS Tribunal. These actions left the
soon-to-be-independent East Timor with no legal mechanism to establish its boundaries in the absence of cooperative
negotiations from Australia.
The Laminaria-Corallina oil field is mostly depleted after generating more than (US) $1 billion in revenues for the
Australian government since 1999; none of this revenue has gone to East Timor. If the Australian government continues to
delay a permanent maritime boundary for decades, they will have taken 60% of East Timor's entire oil and gas
entitlement.
East Timor has protested Australia's recent issuance of new exploration licenses in the disputed Greater Sunrise gas
field, the most lucrative of all known fields on East Timor's side of the median line.
Last March, 53 members of Congress called on Australia to "move seriously and expeditiously in negotiations with East
Timor to establish a fair, permanent maritime boundary and an equitable sharing of oil and gas resources in the Timor
Sea." The Senate Appropriations Committee has urged "both governments to engage in good faith negotiations to resolve
their maritime boundary expeditiously in accordance with international legal principles."
East Timor is among the poorest of the world's countries, suffering from very low levels of basic services and high
unemployment. East Timor is currently struggling not to go into debt to international financial institutions, as it
needs to cover a (US)$126 million budgetary financing gap between 2005 and 2007.
"A boundary determined in accordance with established principles of international law as embodied in the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea and as spelled out in decisions of the International Court of Justice would triple the
income of our country," East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said at the opening of the April talks. "For us, a
twenty year negotiation is not an option. Timor-Leste loses one million dollars a day due to Australia's unlawful
exploitation of resources in the disputed area. That is too many lost and wasted lives."
The East Timor Action Network/U.S. supports human dignity for the people of East Timor by advocating for democracy;
sustainable development; social, legal and economic justice; and human rights, including women's rights.
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John M. Miller Internet: fbp@igc.org
Media & Outreach Coordinator
East Timor Action Network: 12 Years for Self-Determination & Justice
48 Duffield St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA
Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097
Mobile phone: (917)690-4391
Web site: http://www.etan.org
Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out
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