UNTC

see article 18 which reads as follows: "1. The present Agreement shall be open until 30 June 1962 for signature, and thereafter for accession, by countries members of the Economic Commission for Europe and countries admitted to the Commission in a consultative capacity under paragraph 8 of the Commission's terms of reference. 2. The Agreement shall be ratified. 3. The instruments of ratification or accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the manner provided for in paragraphs 4 and 5 of this article. 4. On the expiry of two years after 30 June 1962, or at an earlier date if at least three of the countries referred to in paragraph 1 of this article so request, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall invite the governments of the countries referred to in paragraph 1 to send representatives to a meeting to consider whether it is possible and expedient to bring the Agreement into force, having regard to whether or not the countries prepared to deposit their instruments of ratification or accession are contiguous. If at that meeting at least three countries deposit their instruments of ratification or accession, the Agreement shall enter into force between them on the one hundred and eightieth day after the deposit of the said instruments; if this condition is not fulfilled, no instrument of ratification or accession shall be deposited, a further meeting shall be convened by the Secretary-General when three of the countries referred to in paragraph 1 so request and the Agreement shall enter into force on the one hundred and eightieth day after the deposit at that meeting of at least three instruments of ratification or accession. 5. Each country which ratifies or accedes to the present Agreement after at least three countries have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession at the meeting provided for in paragraph 4 of this article shall become a Contracting Party to the Agreement on the one hundred and eightieth day after it ratification or accession.". ¹