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UNCTAD 60th Rebeca Grynspan speech - 12 June 2024
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Statements | UNCTAD

UNCTAD 60th Opening - 12 June 2024

ENG FRA

Opening statements by:

  • UN Secretary-General António Guterres
  • UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan

 

B-roll: Dignitaries enter Tempus Hall at Palais des Nations, Geneva, and set up for group photo

THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL

--

REMARKS TO THE GLOBAL LEADERS FORUM FOR THE

60TH ANNIVERSARY OF UN TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

 

Geneva, 12 June 2024 

[as delivered]

 

Excellences, chers invités et amis, 

C'est un grand plaisir et un privilège de me joindre à vous pour commémorer le soixantième anniversaire de la CNUCED, à présent connue sous le nom de l’ONU Commerce et Développement. 

Il y a soixante ans, à une époque de transformation et de bouleversements, la CNUCED est née du constat que le développement est inextricablement lié au commerce. 

La toute première session de la CNUCED a vu la signature de la Déclaration conjointe des soixante-dix-sept pays en développement – la création du Groupe des 77. 

En effet, la CNUCED et le Groupe des 77 constituaient deux volets d'un effort conjoint : donner aux pays en développement une plus grande voix dans les débats sur le développement, et bâtir une architecture économique, financière et commerciale davantage axée sur le développement. 

La CNUCED a passé une grande partie des six dernières décennies à défendre les intérêts des pays en développement et à plaider pour un système commercial mondial plus équitable et inclusif – en tant que puissant moteur de croissance économique, de réduction de la pauvreté et de progrès social.

 

Dear friends, 

UNCTAD's commitment to this cause is reflected in its achievements. 

These include the creation of the Least Developed Countries category; the adoption of the Principles and Objectives for a New International Economic Order; and the establishment of the Common Fund for Commodities. 

UNCTAD also has a proud and longstanding record of contributing to discussions on reforming the international financial architecture. It has been a powerful force for change at the global level, shaping narratives, influencing international negotiations, and advancing the cause of multilateralism. 

UNCTAD’s work has not only created a legacy. It continues to be an inspiration for today’s debates and decisions. 

Excellencies, dear friends, 

The first Secretary-General of UNCTAD, the renowned Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch, once remarked that UNCTAD could not be neutral on development problems – just as the World Health Organization could not be neutral on malaria. 

Today, the clarity and commitment of UN Trade and Development are more relevant than ever. 

Geopolitical divisions are rising; inequalities are growing; the climate crisis is hitting many developing countries hard. And new and protracted conflicts are having a ripple effect across the global economy. 

Global debt has soared while key development indicators, including poverty and hunger, have regressed.  

The international financial architecture has been exposed as outdated, dysfunctional, and unjust. It has failed to provide a safety net for developing countries mired in debt. 

And the international trading system is challenged on all sides; teetering on the verge of fragmentation. 

Trade has become a double-edged sword: a source of both prosperity and inequality; interconnection and dependence; economic innovation and environmental degradation.  

In this context, I welcome the reforms to UNCTAD initiated by Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan.   

Your new branding – UN Trade and Development – reflects a renewed commitment to expanding your reach and amplifying advocacy for developing countries.   

Your role remains essential: identifying and working to close gaps and discrepancies in the system; and proposing pragmatic, evidence-based solutions. 

This aspect of UNCTAD’s work was essential to the Global Crisis Response Group, created in 2022, and led by Secretary-General Grynspan. 

Above all, UN Trade and Development remains faithful to your core principle of promoting inclusive and sustainable development through trade and investment.   

And this is essential as multilateral cooperation is weakened and the forces of fragmentation grow stronger. New trade barriers introduced annually have nearly tripled since 2019 -- many driven by geopolitical rivalry, with no concern for their impact on developing countries. 

The world cannot afford splits into rival blocs. The implementation of the SDGs, and the need to ensure peace and security makes essential to have one global market and one global economy, in which there is no place for poverty and hunger. 

The elimination of poverty remains the primary objective of sustainable development. 

The IMF estimates that increased international trade restrictions could reduce global economic output by more than $7 trillion US dollars in the long term – three times the annual output of sub-Saharan Africa. 

It is becoming clear that we also need a new architecture of international finance, taxation and digital governance; 

And a new vision of how to measure progress, how to promote south-south trade, and how to ensure stability in a multipolar world. 

 

Excellencies, dear friends, 

The Summit of the Future in New York in September will seek concrete progress and political momentum on these issues. 

This will be a unique opportunity to forge a new global consensus around addressing the complex economic and development challenges we face, and turbocharging investment in the Sustainable Development Goals. 

And the next three days will be an important milestone on the way to the Summit. I urge you to consider concrete, pragmatic contributions to this process. 

We must channel the courage and wisdom of those who built UNCTAD, to reimagine a world where trade is a force for shared prosperity -- not geopolitical rivalry; 

Where global supply chains are a source of green innovation and climate action – not environmental damage; 

Where sustainable development is a central goal – not an afterthought; 

And where networked inclusive multilateralism, drawing on the expertise of the corporate sector, academia and civil society, is a means to realizing our shared ambitions – not a relic of the past. 

UN Trade and Development has an essential role in that world. 

I look forward to welcoming you to New York to take forward your proposals and recommendations from this important Leaders Forum. 

And I congratulate UN Trade and Development once again on its important history, and its new, forward-looking agenda. 

Thank you.

 ends

 

 

Teleprompter
your Excellencies Heads of state and government of
Comoros, Madagascar and Timor
Leste.
It means so much to us that you are here.
Thank you for making the time and effort to come.
Your Excellency UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez,
Your tireless advocacy for multilateralism has been a guiding
light for us and the wider UN system.
We are really honoured by your presence,
Your Excellency, Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation
Thank you for hosting us
today and always
distinguished guests, their colleagues, their friends
me
up
me
PV
60 years ago
here in Geneva
a powerful idea was born
that from the ashes of war
and from the complex history of trade,
a new chapter could be written
a chapter
where the inequities of the past will not dictate the terms of the future.
The ambitious idea
alongside the creation of the Group of 77
is what became
the UN Conference on Trade and Development and cut.
This idea was both
a rejection
and a promise
a rejection
of business as usual
of the idea that the global economy in 1964 was already a level playing field,
that the rules of the game were fair and just
they were not them.
And they are not now
but 1964 was also a promise,
a promise of recognition
that the newly independent nations forged in the post war struggle
had a right to a seat at the table
to negotiate common principles, common agreements,
common solutions that their voices mattered,
that their development aspirations were legitimate
and required special consideration
that the fruits of globalisation could be shared. That prosperity could be for all
your excellencies.
The history of the last 60 years is the history of that promise being tested,
challenge
and sometimes realised.
The global economy today is very different from what it was in 1964.
It is far larger,
more interconnected, more complex.
Over a billion people have been lifted out of poverty,
and the developing world is now
the engine of global trade and economic activity.
Seen from the viewpoint of history, this may give the illusion
that the ground is less than even today
than it was six decades ago.
But seen from the perspective of those who still struggle
the poor,
the unconnected, the discriminated,
the brutal
but also women and youth,
the ground remains too uneven
and the climb to Ste.
The winds of trade
have filled the cells of some,
propelling them to new heights of wealth and influence.
But for others, those same winds have been a tempest,
leaving them exposed and vulnerable to the boom and the bust of capital,
environmental degradation and commodity dependence.
Technology has transformed our world, unlocking possibilities.
Once unimaginable,
the digital economy is a powerful new engine of development,
which is transforming trade itself, making it intangible and easy to scale,
while at the same time
risking to deepen divides and inequalities.
The resurgence of industrial policy signals a welcome recognition
that the state has a vital role
to play in fostering development and transformation.
But for many developing nations burdened by debt and limited fiscal space,
this resurgence is a distant horizon.
Your excellencies,
the world is in need of a new 1964 moment.
Our internationally agreed rules based economic order is being contested. A
new multi polar world has emerged.
But multipolarity without
multilateralism
is a path to fragmentation, a
descent into trade wars and dwindling global cooperations.
It is a world where the voice of the developing
countries that are at the heart of our membership,
our mandate and our mission risk being
lost in the cacophony of competing interests.
Multipolarity
with multilateralism is a different path,
one where decentralisation of global economic
and political power becomes a vehicle
for inclusion,
where globalisation shows a new face, the face of new players, new ideas,
new generations, new hopes shaping the world.
This meeting is therefore
also a message, a message that it is a mistake to think
that multipolarity is a choice.
Multipolarity is not a choice.
What is a choice is multilateralism.
It is multilateralism. That is the fragile exception,
the crowning achievement of development of mankind's quest for peace.
We must prove this choice right and defend multilateralism every day,
but a renewed form of multilateralism,
with greater representation in governance,
with fair rules in trade and the environment
with much less inequity in the international finance.
As the secretary general of the UN said last year
in New York. And I quote,
we must reform
or rapture.
End of quote
This meeting today in Geneva is that a proud prelude to the summit of the future,
a unique opportunity to rebuild trust and hope,
a task that will require the same spirit than
60 years ago that gave birth to this institution.
Your Excellencies,
The promise of 1964 is alive in this room.
It
lives in the hearts and minds of those who had
dedicated their lives to the cause of trade and development.
From Raul Pres,
our visionary architect to all former secretary general
whose wisdom and have illuminated our path.
It lives in the tireless efforts of our staff, past and present, whose expertise,
commitment and passion have been the lifeblood of this organisation.
And it lives in our member states and in the tables around which they have met
year after year
for six decades. Now
let us be inspired by that spirit
and that promise.
Let's go forward together. I thank you.