Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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)
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
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THE FUNCTIONING
WTO UNCTAD
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 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 nongovernmental stakeholders
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THE MANDATE
WTO
Rules-based organisation, sets binding multilateral trade law through negotiations (legislative role)
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)
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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
UNCTADs INTEGRATED VISION OF TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT and THE SCOPE OF ITS WORK:
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS
THANK YOU !
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