culmination of nine years of complex negotiations at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of Sea (unclos hi). Of all the issues covered by the convention, those pertaining to deep seabed mining proved to be the most contentious because the interests of the developed and developing countries were frequently diametrically opposed. The Western industrialized states were both major mineral consumers and potential deep seabed mining countries. They wanted private companies to be able to mine the deep seabed under a free enterprise system. This proposal was vehemently opposed by the developing countries on the grounds that it would preclude their participation. Instead they advocated that the development of the deep seabed take place under the auspices of an international body which would ensure that the less developed countries were able to participate fully in the mining of the deep seabed and to benefit from the exploitation of its resources. The international debate over deep seabed mining was mirrored, to a considerable extent, within the Canadian policymaking process. The domestic struggle arose because Canada shared some of the interests of the Western industrialized states