Dear Alex, David and Edwin,
Many thanks indeed for those helpful responses.
Regarding Alex's question of whether any State facing the deadline had effectively 'missed the boat', I am not quite sure. We now have, I think, 70 States having delivered preliminary information or formal submissions. The highest figure I had heard for States that could potentially make submissions was 74. Of course, several States did not face yesterday's deadline (either because they became parties to the Convention post-May 1999 (e.g. Canada) or, like the US, are not parties yet). I have yet to work out whether anyone has missed the deadline but will advise on that in due course (or anyone who knows please jump in!) but clearly it won't be many.
Best regards,
Clive
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