The act of signing and ratifying a treaty as a negotiating state has the same effect as the act of acceding to a treaty (or "acceding a treaty") by a state that was not involved in its negotiation. Usually, accessions occur only after the treaty has entered into force, but the UN Secretary General has occasionally accepted accessions even before a treaty went into force. The only downside of not being a negotiating state is that one has no influence over the contents of a treaty, but one is still allowed to declare reservations with respect to specific provisions of the treaty that one wishes to accede to (Article 19).