Two multilateral organizations

dealing with trade:

UNCTAD and WTO

More differences than similarities

 The origins of both organisations

Their mandates

The institutional functioning

Their thinking on trade and development

 The Differences Lie On
The GATT and the WTO UNCTAD: 1964

The Bretton Woods Decolonisation

agreements (1944)
North-South and East-West
tensions
1947: The ITO, the Havana
Charter Non-Aligned Movement
and the GATT (light links with Group of 77
theUN)
Trade not aid: link
GATT Rounds of trade between trade and
negotiations until the development
Uruguay Round (1986-94)
1stUNCTAD Ministerial
Conference met in Geneva;
1995: WTO is established Permanent UNCTAD
outside the UN system secretariat established in
Geneva
 The Functioning
WTO UNCTAD
UNCTAD intergovernmental
No links with the UN machinery (Ministerial
machinery Conferences and Trade and
Development Board) linked
Permanent governmental to UN General Assembly and
bodies that monitor the ECOSOC
implementation of the trade
rules UNCTAD secretariat part of
the UN Secretariat (part of
Negotiating governmental same budget)
bodies UNCTAD secretariat devoted
The to development
Secretariat provides
neutral technical support to No normative role, no
the negotiations negotiations of binding rules,
only political role
Accession has to be
negotiated UN membership (192
countries)
Limited role of non- Strong participation of non-
governmental stakeholders governmental stakeholders
 The Mandate
WTO
UNCTAD:
Rules-based organisation, Integrated treatment of
sets binding multilateral trade, investment and
trade law through related issues
negotiations (legislative wide mandate
role) Research on a range of
Dispute settlement trade and development
mechanism with mandatory issues
decisions, can apply Consensus-building through
sanctions (judicial role) debates and exchange of
experiences among 192
member States on all
Work confined to the UNCTAD issues
existing trade agreements Technical cooperation on all
and to the scope of the the topics of UNCTAD work
negotiations ie. narrow (policy and legal advice,
mandate based on existing training, institution building,
trade rules support to negotiations)
 The Ideas On Development
WTO
UNCTAD
Main goal is not Trade is one of the main
development, but to avoid instruments leading to
commercial disputes development
Same trade rules and but no automatic links
reciprocity apply to all, between trade
but liberalisation, poverty
Special and differential reduction, and
treatment is introduced development
with various intensities The links between trade
The Doha Development and development are
Agenda introduced in multidimensional
2001 Special and differential
Trade liberalisation and treatment is key
implementation of trade No one size-fits-all
rules leads to development development models
 Some UNCTAD Ideas
Special and differential treatment and recognition of different
levels of development (including trade preferences)
Identify the development content and impact of trade
negotiations
Need for a development-friendly coherence between the
international financial and trading systems
Development impact of bilateral and regional trade and
investment agreements
Enhance endogenous capacities and homegrown
development policies
Links between investment, science and technology, ICTs and
trade flows
Role of commodities in international trade
Development-friendly structure of the GATS
LDCs terms of WTO accession
Need for debt reduction and debt sustainability
Role of competition law and policies in development
processes
Traditional work on trade facilitation and related issues
Research on non-trade barriers
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