Calling for the United States to encourage immediate negotiations toward a new agreement among Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties, for the full protection of Antarctica as a global ecological commons.

Declares that: (1) Antarctica is a global ecological commons and should be subjected to a new agreement or protocol which supplements the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which should be subject to periodic review, and which should establish Antarctica as a region closed for an indefinite period to commercial minerals development and related activities; (2) under such agreement, information about minerals or other resources in Antarctica should be obtained under strictly controlled arrangements and should be openly shared within the international scientific community; (3) the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities is not adequate to protect the environment of Antarctica and could stimulate commercial exploitation; (4) pending the negotiation and entry into force of a new agreement, the Convention should not be presented to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification and the United States should support the interim measures in force among the Consultative Parties to the Antarctic Treaty; and (5) the negotiation of such a new agreement should be a major item on the agenda of the November 1990 meeting of the Antarctica Treaty Convention Parties in Santiago, Chile.