The polar code is supposed to be basically an add-on kind of code. You have existing conventions like the MARPOL Convention, which deals with standards for pollution from ships. You have the SOLAS Convention, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which sets general standards for construction of ships, but they're not Arctic-specific. They're not polar-specific. The idea of a polar code is to add in all kinds of things such as extra survival gear that you need if you have an accident and certain kinds of life-saving equipment. Right now, this environmental chapter is being discussed, about what kind of special pollution standards should we set.
One of the big questions is what happens if you negotiated at the end of the day...and it will clearly apply to all the Arctic. Again, they have guidelines that apply pretty well to most of the Arctic. It goes down close to the Barents Sea, for example, in one part. But one of the big questions is going to be what happens if Canada doesn't agree with some of the standards? Maybe they're not Canadian standards, they're lower standards than Canada's.Then it's going to be an interesting question because Canada could still stay with its own national regime saying that the code is not good enough for us and we'll apply it to the high seas area but not to our national waters. There could very well be a Canadian regulatory regime under article 234 under the Law of the Sea Convention that may have higher standards than the global standards under the polar shipping code.