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Acting Secretary of State Thomas Pickering, Canadian Ambassador Raymond Chretien, Senior White House Representative Lloyd Cutler, And Acting Assistant Secretary of State Melinda Kimble Remarks at Pacific Salmon Agreement Signing Washington, DC, June 30, 1999

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY KIMBLE: (In progress) - Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. I am exceptionally pleased today to welcome Ambassador Chretien to the Department of State for a momentous event: the exchange of diplomatic notes which will conclude the United States-Canada agreement on Pacific salmon.

Ambassador Chretien and Under Secretary Pickering, we are honored to have with us also George Frampton of the Council on Environmental Quality; Under Secretary of Commerce and NOAA Administrator James Baker; and Peter Romero, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs. We also have with us many current participants, as well as a number of veterans, of the Pacific salmon negotiations including US negotiator Jim Pipkin; Senior White House Representative Lloyd Cutler; former Senior Federal Representative Roberts Owen; Counselor to the Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman; Deputy Assistant Secretary Mary Beth West; Mr. Don McRae; and Mr. Pat Chamut, who we're especially pleased to have here today - the Canadian negotiators - and many others who have given much time and energy to this issue.

Ambassador Chretien and Under Secretary Pickering, I now invite you to sign this agreement.

(The documents were signed.)

And now I would like to invite Under Secretary Pickering to make a few brief remarks.

(Applause.)

ACTING SECRETARY PICKERING: Thank you very much, Melinda. Ambassador Chretien and all of our distinguished guests this morning, I want to tell you what a great pleasure it is to be here today and to sign this Pacific salmon agreement.

Raymond, this is a remarkable agreement which brings to a successful end seven years of very intensive negotiations. It's significance to our two countries cannot be underestimated.

I welcome you here with enthusiasm about what our two countries have achieved together. I would also like to welcome Canada's expert negotiator, Don McRae, who I understand got a late plane down here today; Jim Baker, Under Secretary of Commerce and Administrator of NOAA; George Frampton, Chair of the Council of Environmental Equality; and Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Peter Romero.

The Pacific salmon agreement represents an investment in the future of the resource and those whose livelihoods depend upon it. Salmon fishers from both countries will benefit from greater stability in fisheries management. This agreement greatly reduces the risks that actions in one jurisdiction will undercut conservation goals and fishing opportunities elsewhere.

Like most agreements, it is a compromise, but one we think will benefit the resource, the industry and ultimately the future of both of our countries. Speaking this morning as Acting Secretary, I believe that this agreement reflects the deep ties between Canada and the United States. The strength of our bilateral relationship is evident in our ability to be forward-looking while resolving a most difficult issue like the Pacific salmon agreement

This landmark agreement does more than just divide the salmon harvest for the next ten years. It could well set the tone for fisheries management worldwide. It replaces the thick ceilings of earlier agreements with an abundance-based management approach to salmon. This new approach mandates smaller catches in years of low abundance and higher catches in years of high abundance. Experience shows that this approach requires understanding the salmon life-cycle.

Today the United States has agreed to establish two endowment funds, whose interest would be used to support research and enhancement, among other goals, in both Canada and the United States. The new fishing regime is only part of the solution to the challenges of salmon management. As our negotiators observed, freshwater habitat must be protected and restored to allow for successful salmon migration, spawning and rearing.

This agreement takes a major step forward in that direction, providing for discussions within the Pacific Salmon Commission of non-harvest factors affecting fish production. The agreement will also promote cooperation between United States and Canadian scientists, and make the scientific work of the Pacific Salmon Commission more effective.

Let me say that this agreement also represents a major diplomatic achievement, which will remove from US-Canadian relations an issue which has been divisive in the past and detrimental to the resource.

I want to salute all who made this agreement possible. We thank US negotiator James Pipkin and Canadian negotiator Don McRae for their dedication and determination to break through and find a solution. We want to thank, as well, the members - all of them - of their negotiating teams, who provided the knowledge and insight that made the agreement possible: Mary Beth West, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Fisheries and Space, for her hard work on this issue. Lloyd Cutler, Senior White House Representative for Pacific Salmon, deserves special thanks for helping to bring this pact to a close; and for Lloyd, this is something of a specialty because when I ran the Bureau of Oceans, Environment, Scientific Affairs, Lloyd was also a remarkable resource on whom we relied to deal with the particularly tough problems.

I would also like to extend my deep gratitude to those who provided the political will that made the concept of sustainable fisheries the keystone of this agreement. They include many: Canadian Fisheries Minister David Anderson; Congressman Young; Congressman Dicks; Congressman Metcalf; Senator Stevens; Senator Murkowski; Senator Gordon; Senator (inaudible); Senator Gordon Smith; Senator Wyden; Oregon Governor Kitzharber; Alaska Governor Knowles; Washington Governor Locke; the leaders of 24 treaty Indian tribes; and others with whom we have worked closely over the years on this very important issue.

Now we look forward to working together to implement the very great innovations that are in this agreement. I want to thank particularly Ambassador Chretien for being here and for, obviously, all of the help and cooperation of the Canadian side in bringing this agreement about. It is a remarkable new step forward in Canadian-American relations; something that we have come to expect as a matter of course, but something the hard work for which lies deeply behind, has been extremely difficult to produce and is extremely important for the future of both of our countries.

Thank you all very much.

(Applause.)

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY KIMBLE: And now I'd like to ask Ambassador Chretien to come to the podium.

AMBASSADOR CHRETIEN: Thank you very much. Good morning. If you will allow me, Mr. Pickering, Tom, I will speak from the heart of this issue.

We are here to celebrate the signing of this agreement that brings to an end many years of disputes. We should never forget, though, that this is not a new phenomenon. Reading some very old clippings, more than a century ago, there were already some problems on the West Coast between Americans and Canadians regarding salmon.

But this morning we're here to celebrate the signing of this agreement. Mr. Pickering, you have mentioned all those who deserve to be thanked and congratulated for it. I would certainly like to say here that on our side, this agreement would have been absolutely impossible without the great work of our negotiator who is here this morning, Mr. McRae. I see Pat Chamut, who for years has been a source of good advice for the Canadian Government, and I'm sure that he's very happy that we have reached this agreement today.

I see also, of course, your negotiator, Mr. Pipkin. He has been associated with this issue for a long, long time; and without his great experience and knowledge, this agreement would have been impossible.

Certainly, also other key players deserve to be mentioned. On our side, of course, our Minister of Foreign Affairs has taken a keen interest in this issue; and of course, our Minister of Fisheries, David Anderson, has spent a great deal of time, tremendous efforts linking with the governors of Alaska, Oregon, Washington State. And without the efforts of our Minister of Fisheries, again, this agreement would not have been possible today.

This - (inaudible) - will allow us to enter what is probably our most quiet summer in recent years --

(Laughter.)

--which is, I'm sure, welcome news for you. It's also for me, in a broader perspective, a good example of how Canadians and Americans work alike or work together. We never gave up on this issue. I think that the two sides have shown a lot of persistence. We had some difficult times, especially in the summer of '97, but we have worked it out again. So I think it is a good and unique example of how two very friendly countries work together on such a difficult issue.

I would just express the hope that the agreement will bring peace for the next 10, 12 years. We are very confident that it will. I know that on your side, we have the support of some powerful legislators; you have mentioned them all. I've worked particularly closely with Senators Stevens and Murkowski on this, so I'm sure that their contribution also deserves to be mentioned.

(In French.)

So thank you very much. It's a day for celebration; I guess we should go and have a drink.

(Laughter and applause.)

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY KIMBLE: Before we take the Ambassador up on his suggestion -

(Laughter.)

-- I would definitely like to ask the Special White House Representative on Pacific Salmon, Mr. Lloyd Cutler, to make a few remarks.

MR. CUTLER: Mr. Secretary, Mr. Ambassador, I'm certainly not going to stand in the way of a drink.

(Laughter.)

Tom, you have given me more credit for my role in this than I really deserve. As Bob Strauss once said, timing in Washington is everything.

(Laughter.)

And I arrived just at the moment when a great deal of progress had been made for the first time in many years and the parties all looked at the consequences of failing to agree and going back to the kind of gridlock that's existed for a decade or so. And they wanted to go forward, and that was really accomplished not by anything I did, but by the desire of Minister Anderson, Mr. McRae and our side - all the people that have been mentioned - and above all, I'd like to pay a special tribute to Jim Pipkin, whose patience and his ability to inspire trust not only with his Canadian counterparts but with all the fishermen and all the people from the states and the Indian tribes, is what made this thing really happen.

When I worked on the Gulf of Maine fisheries, I was told of a long lake in Massachusetts, which had been the scene of the first North American fishery agreement between the Indian tribes on both shores. And the lake has a long Indian name which, translated, means "you fish on your side, we fish on our side, and nobody fishes in the middle."

(Laughter.)

Unfortunately, for salmon, that just doesn't work. Salmon spawn in the rivers, streams of one country and swim through the waters of the other country. There is no way to resolve the problem. I think another factor in finally arriving at this agreement is the admiration, the sort of affection we all have for salmon and the mystery that surrounds them and the fact that to this day, we don't know how or why they spawn where they do or how they get back.

But I want to congratulate everybody here, and I want to say a special word of thanks to George Frampton, who's seducing me into taking this on against my better judgment.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY KIMBLE: I'd particularly like to thank Ambassador Chretien and Acting Secretary Pickering for coming and concluding this momentous agreement. I'd like to thank you all for coming, and I'd like to invite you all to join us - (inaudible).

[end of document]

Link to June 30, 1999 documents.

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