UNCTAD and the WTO are the two main multilateral organizations dealing with international trade, but they differ in their origins, mandates, functioning, and views on trade and development. UNCTAD was established by the UN in 1964 to integrate discussions of trade, investment, and development issues, with a focus on addressing the needs of developing countries. The WTO was established in 1995 and operates outside of the UN system, with a narrower mandate focused on negotiating and enforcing binding trade rules through a rules and dispute settlement-based approach. Whereas the WTO sees trade liberalization as leading to development, UNCTAD views the relationship between trade and development as more complex and multidimensional.

1. 1
Two multilateral organisations
dealing with trade:
UNCTAD and WTO
More differences than similarities
Manuela Tortora
Chief, Technical Cooperation
UNCTAD

2. 2
THE DIFFERENCES LIE ON:
• The origins of both organisations
• Their mandates
• The institutional functioning
• Their thinking on trade and development

3. 3
THE ORIGINS
The GATT
and the WTO
• Keynes’ ideas on post-war
international economic governance
(avoid economic conflicts)
• The Bretton Woods agreements
(1944)
• 1947: the ITO, the Havana Charter
and the GATT (light links with the
UN)
• GATT Rounds of trade
negotiations until the Uruguay
Round
(1986-94)
• 1995: WTO is established outside
the UN system
UNCTAD: 1964
 Decolonisation
 North-South and East-West
tensions
 Non-Aligned Movement
Group of 77
 “Trade not aid”: link between
trade and development
(Prebisch thinking)
 1st UNCTAD Ministerial
Conference meets in Geneva;
Permanent UNCTAD
secretariat established in
Geneva

4. 4
THE FUNCTIONING
WTO
• No links with the UN machinery
• Permanent governmental bodies
that monitor the implementation of
the trade rules
• Negotiating governmental bodies
• The Secretariat provides neutral
technical support to the
negotiations
• Accession has to be negotiated
• Limited role of non-governmental
stakeholders
UNCTAD
• UNCTAD intergovernmental
machinery (Ministerial Conferences
and Trade and Development Board)
linked to UN General Assembly and
ECOSOC
• UNCTAD secretariat part of the UN
Secretariat (part of same budget)
• UNCTAD secretariat devoted to
development
• No normative role, no negotiations of
binding rules, only political role
• UN membership (192 countries)
• Strong participation of non-
governmental stakeholders

5. 5
THE MANDATE
UNCTAD:
Integrated treatment of trade,
investment and related issues=
wide mandate
• Research on a range of trade and
development issues
• Consensus-building through
debates and exchange of
experiences among 192 member
States on all UNCTAD issues
• Technical cooperation on all the
topics of UNCTAD work
(policy and legal advice, training,
institution building, support to
negotiations)
WTO
•Rules-based organisation, sets
binding multilateral trade law
through negotiations
(“legislative” role)
•Dispute settlement mechanism
with mandatory decisions, can
apply sanctions (“judicial” role)
•Work confined to the existing
trade agreements and to the
scope of the negotiations =
narrow mandate based on
existing trade rules

6. 6
THE IDEAS ON DEVELOPMENT
WTO
• Main goal is not development per
se, but to avoid commercial
disputes
• Same trade rules and reciprocity
apply to all, but…
• …Special and differential
treatment is introduced with
various intensities
• The “Doha Development
Agenda” introduced in 2001
• Trade liberalisation and
implementation of trade rules
leads to development
UNCTAD
• Trade is one of the main
instruments leading to
development…
• …but no automatic links between
trade liberalisation, poverty
reduction, and development
• The links between trade and
development are
multidimensional
• Special and differential
treatment is key
• No “one size-fits-all”
development models

7. 7
UNCTAD’s INTEGRATED VISION OF TRADE AND
DEVELOPMENT and THE SCOPE OF ITS WORK:
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS
SUPPLY-SIDE
PRODUCTIVE
CAPACITY
POLICIES
TRADE
SUPPORT
SERVICES
POLICIES
TRADE
POLICY
AND
NEGOTIATION

8. 8
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

9. 9
THANK YOU !
www.unctad.org