United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues.

The organization's goals are to "maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of developing countries and assist them in their efforts to integrate into the world economy on an equitable basis." (from official website). The creation of the conference was based on concerns of developing countries over the international market, multi-national corporations, and great disparity between developed nations and developing nations.

In the 1970s and 1980s, UNCTAD was closely associated with the idea of a New International Economic Order (NIEO).

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 in order to provide a forum where the developing countries could discuss the problems relating to their economic development. This was set up essentially because it was felt that the then existing institution like GATT and IMF were not properly organised to handle the peculiar problems of developing countries. With more than 170 193 members, UNCTAD presently is the only body where developed as well as the erstwhile centrally planned countries are members.

The primary objective of the UNCTAD is to formulate policies relating to all aspects of development including trade, aid, transport, finance and technology. The Conference ordinarily meets once in four years. The first conference took place in Geneva in 1964, second in New Delhi in 1968, the third in Santiago in 1972, fourth in Nairobi in 1976, the fifth in Manila in 1979, the sixth in Belgrade in 1983, the seventh in Geneva in 1987, the eighth in Cartagena(Colombia) in 1992 and the ninth at Johannesburg (South Africa)in 1996. The Conference has its permanent secretariat in Geneva.

One of the principal achievements of UNCTAD has been to conceive and implement the Generalised System of Preferences(GSP). It was argued in UNCTAD fora that in order to promote exports of manufacturers from developing countries, it would be necessary to offer special tariff concessions to such exports. Accepting this argument, the developed countries formulated the GSP Scheme under which exports of manufacturers and semi-manufacturers and some agricultural items from the developing countries enter duty-free or at reduced rates in the developed countries. Since imports of such items from other developed countries are subject to the normal rates of duties, exports from the developing countries would be more competitive.

Currently, UNCTAD has 193 member States and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. UNCTAD has 400 staff members and an annual regular budget of approximately US$50 million and US$25 million of extrabudgetary technical assistance funds.

Meetings

The inter-governmental work is done at 5 levels of meetings: ^[1]

• The UNCTAD Conference – held every 4 years;
  • UNCTAD XIII will be held in Doha, Qatar in 2012
  • UNCTAD XII was held in Accra, Ghana in 21-25 April 2008 [1]
  • UNCTAD XI was held in São Paulo, Brazil in 13-18 June 2004 [2]
  • UNCTAD X was held in Bangkok, Thailand in 12-19 February 2000 [3]
  • UNCTAD IX was held in Midrand, South Africa in 27 April – 11 May 1996
  • UNCTAD VIII was held in Cartagena, Colombia in 8-25 February 1992

• The UNCTAD Trade and Development Board – the Board manages the work of UNCTAD in between two Conferences and meets up to three times every year;
• Four UNCTAD Commissions and one Working Party – these meet more often than the Board in order to take up policy, programme and budgetary issues;
• Expert Meetings – the Commissions will convene expert meetings on selected topics in order to provide substantive and expert input for Commission policy discussions.

Reports

UNCTAD produces a number of topical reports, including:

• The Trade and Development Report [4]
• The Trade and Environment Review [5]
• The World Investment Report [6]
• The Economic Development in Africa Report [7]
• The Least Developed Countries Report [8]
• UNCTAD Statistics [9]
• The Information Economy Report [10]
• The Review of Maritime Transport [11]
• The International Accounting and Reporting Issues Annual Review [12]

Other

UNCTAD also conducts various technical cooperation programmes [13] such as ASYCUDA, DMFAS, EMPRETEC and WAIPA.

In addition, UNCTAD conducts certain technical cooperation in collaboration with the World Trade Organization through the joint International Trade Centre (ITC), a technical cooperation agency targeting operational and enterprise-oriented aspects of trade development.

UNCTAD hosts the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) [14]

Complete List of Secretaries-General and Officers-in-Charge

See also

• International trade
• Foreign direct investment
• List of countries by received FDI

Notes

External links

• UNCTAD home page
• UNCTAD Member states
• International Trade Centre home page
• UNCTAD: Time to Lead (Focus on the Global South)
• Global Policy Forum - UNCTAD

Bibliography

• Paul Berthoud, A Professional Life Narrative, 2008, worked with UNCTAD and offers testimony from the inside.