Paragraph 9 Agendas for the meetings

A provisional agenda for each meeting, as well as draft operational conclusions as provided for in Article 10, shall be drawn up by the Secretariat of the SPS Sub-Committee on the basis of proposals made by the Parties. The provisional agenda shall include items in respect of which the Secretariat has received a request for inclusion in the agenda by a Party, supported by relevant documents, no later than 21 calendar days before the meeting date.

The provisional agenda, together with the relevant documents, shall be circulated in accordance with Article 7 no later than 15 calendar days before the beginning of the meeting.

The agenda shall be adopted by the SPS Sub-Committee at the beginning of each meeting. Items other than those appearing on the provisional agenda may be placed on the agenda if the Parties so agree.

The Chair may, on an ad-hoc basis and with the agreement of the other Party, invite representatives of other bodies of the Parties or independent experts to attend meetings of the SPS Sub-Committee as observers in order to provide information on specific subjects. The Parties shall ensure that those observers respect any confidentiality requirements.

The Chair may, in consultation with the Parties, reduce the time periods specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 in order to take account of special circumstances.