The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964 as the UN System body dedicated to the integrated treatment of trade and development and interrelated issues in the areas of finance, technology, investment and entrepreneurship.
It is the United Nations body with a specific mandate aimed at addressing the relation between international trade and development. Its legitimacy is confirmed by the participation of both developed and developing countries in its works. In this context, the role of Brazil is to maintain, strenghten and develop UNCTAD’s activities under its three pillars: consensus building, technical cooperation, and research and analysis on development issues.
Every four years, UNCTAD member countries (that is, all UN countries) convene a conference to outline strategic guidelines for the following work period. The mandate of UNCTAD14, held in Nairobi in 2016, is currently in effect. The UNCTAD15, scheduled for October 2020 in Bridgetown, Barbados, has been postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The programmes outlined at the Conference are carried out by UNCTAD’s Secretariat, which is also responsible for providing services in support of the fulfillment of the Conference mandate. The Secretariat’s units, in turn, assist the Trade and Development Board, a permanent intergovernmental body with two subsidiary commissions: Trade and Development Commission, and Investment, Entrepreneurship and Development Commission. The Commissions are entitled to convene an experts’ meeting to deepen discussions on technical issues.
Since its inception in 1964, UNCTAD has made an important contribution to the development of the multilateral trading system. Some of outcomes of its discussions include, for example, the Commodities Agreements and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), through which developed countries grant preferences to developing countries. The Organization has also supported the negotiation and operation of the General System of Trade Preferences among Developing Countries (GSTP). In addition, UNCTAD played an important role in conducting research and intergovernmental discussion on topics such as commodities, international trade in goods and services, investments, competition policies, among others, thus seeking to analyze and bring to the discussion relevant issues of the international economic agenda from the perspective of developing countries.
Brazilian participation in UNCTAD
Brazil was one of the countries that promoted the first UNCTAD and its institutionalization, always being one of its most active members. Brazil initially considered UNCTAD a forum for discussing the reform of the international trade and investment flows frameworks, in line with the critical analysis carried out in the 1950s at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). In the 1980s, from a new perspective, Brazil was one of the leaders of the institution's reform, reinforcing its role as a center for reflection on economic development.
Brazil currently supports its view that the institution should not be limited to activities of technical assistance for least developed countries, but should also seek to expand its capacity as a center for analysis and discussion on development issues with a view of achieving international consensus. In addition, UNCTAD studies as well as its economic and trade database are important tools for developing negotiating strategies at the WTO and for trade promotion initiatives.
UNCTAD14 (Nairobi 2016)
The UNCTAD14 final document managed to preserve the organism's central mandate on topics of interest to developing countries by reaffirming its role in all relevant areas of UNCTAD's work and by properly addressing its three pillars. In addition, several of the agreements reached reinforce UNCTAD's intergovernmental pillar. In fact, an agreement was reached on the creation of two intergovernmental groups of experts (IGEs) – one on e-commerce and digital economy, and another one on financing for development. These groups offer members the opportunity to take more advantage of deliberative instances and of the organism's potential as a think tank and as a generator of ideas that can help form consensus in other forums.