The primary objective of UNCTAD is to formulate policies relating to all aspects of development, including trade, aid, transport, finance and technology. It was created in response to concerns among developing countries that existing international institutions likeGATT (since replaced by theWorld Trade Organization), theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), and theWorld Bank were not properly organized to handle the particular problems of developing countries; UNCTAD would provide a forum where developing nations could discuss and address problems relating to their economic development.
One of UNCTAD's principal achievements was conceiving and implementing theGeneralized System of Preferences (GSP), which promotes the export of manufactured goods from developing countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, UNCTAD was closely associated with theNew International Economic Order (NIEO), a set of proposals that sought to reduce economicdependency andinequality between developing and developed countries.
UNCTAD conferences ordinarily take place every four years, with the first occurring inGeneva in 1964; fifteen subsequent meetings have taken place worldwide, with the most recent held inBridgetown,Barbados, from 3–8 October 2021 (albeit virtually, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic).
UNCTAD has 400 staff members and a biannual (2010–2011) regular budget of US$138 million in core expenditures and US$72 million in extra-budgetary technical assistance funds. It is a member of theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Group, a consortium of UN entities that work to promote sustainable socioeconomic development.[5]
The lists, originally defined in 19th General Assembly resolution 1995[7] serve to balance geographical distribution of member states' representation on the Trade Development Board and other UNCTAD structures. The lists are similar to those ofUNIDO, a UNspecialized agency.
The full list is as follows:
List A (98 members): Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
List B (32 members): Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.
List C (33 members): Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela.
List D (25 members): Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
Not assigned countries (7 members): Armenia, Kiribati, Nauru, Palestine, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Tuvalu.
The UNCTAD Trade and Development Board – the board manages the work of UNCTAD 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 to take up policy, programme and budgetary issues.
Expert Meetings – the commissions will convene expert meetings on selected topics to provide substantive and expert input for Commission policy discussions.
The 15th quadrennial meeting took place virtually inBridgetown, Barbados, from 25 to 30 April 2021.[15]
In response to developing countries (Least Developed Country, LDC) anxiety at their worsening position in world trade, theUnited Nations General Assembly voted for a 'one-off' conference. These early discussions paved the way for new IMF facilities to provide finance for shortfalls in commodity earnings and for the Generalised Preference Schemes which increased access to Northern markets for manufactured imports from the South. AtGeneva, the LDCs were successful in their proposal for the conference with its secretariat to become a permanent organ of the UN, with meetings every four years.[16] At the Geneva meeting,Raúl Prebisch—a prominent Argentinian economist from theUnited Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)—became the organization's first secretary-general.[17]
The New Delhi Conference, held in February and March 1968, was a forum that allowed developing countries to reach an agreement on the basic principles of their development policies. The conference in New Delhi was an opportunity for schemes to be finally approved. The conference provided a major impetus in persuading the North to follow up on UNCTAD I resolutions, in establishing generalized preferences. The target for private and official flows to LDCs was raised to 1% of the North'sGNP, but the developed countries failed to achieve the target by a specific date. This has proven a continuing point of debate at UNCTAD conferences.
The Santiago Conference, 15 April 1972, was the third occasion on which developing countries confronted the rich with the need to use trade and aid measures more effectively to improve living standards in the developing world. Discussion centred on the international monetary system and specifically on the South's proposal that a higher proportion of new special drawing rights (SDRs) should be allocated to LDCs as a form of aid (the so-called 'link'). InSantiago, substantial disagreements arose within theGroup of 77 (G77) despite preconference meetings. There was disagreement over the SDR proposal and between those in the G77 who wanted fundamental changes such as a change in the voting allocations in the South's favour at the IMF and those (mainly the Latin American countries) who wanted much milder reforms. This internal dissent seriously weakened the group's negotiating position and led to a final agreed motion which recommended that the IMF should examine the link and that further research be conducted into general reforms. This avoided firm commitments to act on the 'link' or general reform, and the motion was passed by the conference.[16][19]
UNCTAD IV, held inNairobi in May 1976, showed relative success compared to its predecessors. AnOverseas Development Institute briefing paper of April 1979 highlights one reason for success as being down to the1973 Oil Crisis and the encouragement of LDCs to make gains through producers of other commodities. The principal result of the conference was the adoption of the Integrated Programme for Commodities. The programme covered the principal commodity exports and its objectives aside from the stabilisation of commodity prices were: "Just and remunerative pricing, taking into account world inflation", the expansion of processing, distribution and control of technology by LDCs and improved access to markets.[20][21]
UNCTAD V, held inManila in 1979 in the wake of the Nairobi Conference, focused on the key issues of protectionism in developing countries and the need for structural change, trade in commodities and manufacturing aid and international monetary reform, technology, shipping, and economic co-operation among developing countries. An Overseas Development Institute briefing paper written in 1979 focuses its attention on the key issues regarding the LDCs' role as theGroup of 77 in the international community.[20]
The sixth UN Conference on Trade and Development inBelgrade, 6–30 June 1983, was held against the background of earlier UNCTADs which have substantially failed to resolve many of the disagreements between the developed and developing countries and of a world economy in its worst recession since the early 1930s. The key issues of the time were finance and adjustment, commodity price stabilisation and trade.[16]
The fifteenth session of UNCTAD was originally scheduled for 2020 but was delayed until 2021 due toCOVID-19.This was the first time the conference was held in aSmall Island Developing State (SIDS).
One of UNCTAD's earliest and most notable accomplishments was the formulation and implementation of theGeneralized System of Preferences (GSP), which offered special tariff concessions to exports of manufactured goods by developing countries. Accepting this argument, the developed countries formulated the GSP scheme under which manufacturers' exports and imports of some agricultural goods 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, imports of the same items from developing countries would enjoy a competitive advantage.
In addition, UNCTAD conducts certain technical cooperation in collaboration with theWorld Trade Organization through the jointInternational Trade Centre (ITC), a technical cooperation agency targeting operational and enterprise-oriented aspects of trade development.
