U.S., Mexico to Sign Maritime Pact
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MEXICO CITY — Mexico and the United States will sign a historic treaty today defining the territorial waters of the two countries, 19 years after an original accord on the issue, Mexican officials said Wednesday.
The pact, due to be signed by presidents Clinton and Ernesto Zedillo in Washington, should put to rest disputes over the U.S.-Mexico dividing line in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico and the fisheries of the Pacific.
“The agreement has enormous legal and political importance,” Foreign Minister Jose Angel Gurria Trevino told a news conference. “Our maritime borders with the United States will be settled.”
The maritime agreement sets rules governing all natural resources but was driven largely by oil disputes in the gulf.
Mexico long has complained that U.S. oil companies have been drilling in Mexican territory, but the complaints were difficult to back up without clearly marked borders. Now there will be “no doubt” about the frontier, Gurria said.
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