The Trade and Development Commission is a subsidiary body of the Trade and Development Board, its role is defined in paragraph 121 of the Bridgetown Covenant (TD/541/Add.2).
The substantive agenda item of the 15th session is leveraging international trade rules for development. In addition, the Commission will review reports of expert meetings and examine activities implemented by the secretariat that have promoted and strengthened synergies among the three pillars.
Leveraging international trade rules for development
In recent decades, it has been observed that, under appropriate conditions, trade can be a powerful engine for economic growth and poverty reduction. As such, the multilateral trade framework can play a key role in advancing global development objectives. However, developing countries and particularly the least developed countries often struggle to fully leverage this framework, due to capacity constraints and resource limitations. To maximize the benefits of World Trade Organization membership, these countries should make full use of the existing flexibilities and special and differential treatment within multilateral trade agreements.
At the same time, new global developments including new trade rules and the emergence of new issues such as climate change, critical energy transition minerals, biodiversity degradation and rapid technological transformations, are reshaping the trade policy space of developing countries. To benefit from multilateral trade rules, developing counties need to strengthen their capacities to address these issues adequately. UNCTAD stands ready to support member States better leverage development benefits from the multilateral trade rules.
By fostering discussions and bridging policy gaps, UNCTAD aims to help countries better harness the development benefits of multilateral trade rules and advance a more inclusive and sustainable global trade system.
Reports of expert meetings
- Multi-year Expert Meeting on Commodities and Development.
- Multi-year Expert Meeting on Trade, Services and Development.
- Multi-year Expert Meeting on Enhancing the Enabling Economic Environment at All Levels in Support of Inclusive and Sustainable Development, and the Promotion of Economic Integration and Cooperation.
- Multi-year Expert Meeting on Transport, Trade Logistics and Trade Facilitation.
- Report of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy.
- Report of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Consumer Protection Law and Policy.
Participation
The Commission is open to all member States of UNCTAD. Specialized agencies, intergovernmental bodies and non-governmental organizations (general and special category) are also eligible to participate as observers.
Registration
Online registration is mandatory for all those wishing to attend the session and is required in order to be included in the list of participants.
Related meeting
Special event on Hidden assets: From illicit finance to development gains
UNCTAD and UN SDG Action Campaign will co-host a Special event on Hidden assets: From illicit finance to development gains on 29 April from 15:00 - 18:00 hrs.
The event will bring together leading academics as well as experts from UN SDG Action Campaign and UNCTAD to discuss the impact of IFFs on economic development and policies to combat IFFs.
Mr. Pedro Manuel Moreno of Spain, is Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD.
He has over 20 years of experience of working for multilateral and intergovernmental organizations in programme, management and strategic positions both in the field and at headquarters.
He was Deputy Secretary-General of the Communication for Development Committee at the Spanish National Commission with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (1999-2004), and for the United Nations Development Programme, at the Country Office in Ecuador and, in New York City, as part of the Human Development Report team, at the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean and at the Executive Office.
In 2014, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Ibero-American Conference in Madrid, where he coordinated key political processes and South-South cooperation projects.
In September 2021, he was named Chief of Staff and Director of the Office of the Secretary-General of UNCTAD.
Matthew Wilson is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, World Trade Organisation and Other International Organisations in Geneva. He is Chair of the WTO Working Group on MSMEs and convener of the WTO Dialogue on Plastics Pollution.
He has held various senior roles in international organisations including Chief of Staff at the International Trade Centre; Senior Adviser to the WTO Director General, Deputy Aid for Trade Coordinator at the WTO and the first ‘Friend of the Chair’ on the WTO Trade Facilitation Negotiations.
He is an International Gender Champion and is on the steering committee of the International Gender Champions; the WEF Climate Trade Zero; the Forum on Trade, Environment and the SDGs; and the shridath ramphal centre for international trade law, policy and services at the University of the West Indies.
Ambassador Alaa Hegazy is the Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, a role he assumed in November 2024.
He has held numerous senior positions throughout his career, including Assistant Foreign Minister and Chief of the Minister’s Cabinet in Cairo, and Ambassador of Egypt to the Kingdom of Sweden.
Ambassador Hegazy has also served in key diplomatic posts in Washington D.C., Beijing, and Geneva, and has been closely involved in international economic affairs and multilateral diplomacy. He holds degrees in Economics & Law, a Master’s degree in International Political Economy from Warwick University (United Kingdom) and a Law degree from Cairo University.
H.E. Ms. Eunice M. Tembo Luambia, Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations in Geneva and in Vienna, has served in various capacities, among them:
Director, Zambia Mine Action Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2011-2022); Deputy High Commissioner and Head of Chancery, High Commission in London, United Kingdom (2007-2011); Acting High Commissioner, London, United Kingdom (2009); First Secretary for Political Affairs, High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa (2002-2007); Acting High Commissioner in Pretoria, South Africa (2002); Senior Executive Officer & Desk Officer in charge of Africa and Middle East, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1995-2002); and Executive Officer and Desk Officer in charge of Asia, the Americas and Europe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993-1995).
Ms. Luambia holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration from the University of Lusaka, Zambia.
Christian Guillermet Fernández has been a career diplomat in the Costa Rican foreign service since 1998 and, from April 2020 to June 2023, was appointed as Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs.
During his experience in the Foreign Service and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, in the last decade he worked as:
- Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations in New York (2019-2020).
- Director General of Foreign Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica (2016-2018)
- Deputy Director General of Foreign Policy (2015-2016).
- Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations in Geneva (2010-2015). From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Guillermet-Fernández was an official in the Office of the Ombudsman of Costa Rica, at the beginning of the creation of the Institution.
During his diplomatic career, he worked as Chair-Rapporteur of the United Nations Open-ended Working Group on the Right to Peace, among others. In addition, he has collaborated extensively with different universities and think tanks and has written for prestigious peer-reviewed journals worldwide.
He has studied Law and International Relations with extensive experience in multilateral affairs, human rights, peace and security, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, humanitarian disarmament.
Arancha González is the third Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) at Sciences Po and the first woman to lead the world's third school for Politics and International Studies.
Prior to joining PSIA, Ms González served as Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation (2020-2021). She previously was Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (2013-2020). Between 2005 and 2013 she served as Chief of Staff to the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy. Before that she held senior positions at the European Commission in the areas of international trade and development. Ms González started her career as a lawyer in the private sector.
Ms González has been a member of PSIA's Strategic Committee since 2017.
A Spanish national, Ms González holds a degree in law from the University of Navarra and a Postgraduate Degree in European Law from the University Carlos III of Madrid.
Simon J. Evenett is Professor of Geopolitics and Strategy at International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne. He founded the St Gallen Endowment for Prosperity Through Trade (SGEPT), which hosts three leading independent commercial policy monitoring initiatives: the Global Trade Alert, a key resource for trade monitoring and assessing trade tensions, the New Industrial Policy Observatory, and the Digital Policy Alert.
His research focuses on geopolitical rivalry, international trade policy, protectionism, industrial policy, business-government relations, trade negotiations and agreements, and the WTO. Evenett draws out the implications of these developments for executives, corporate strategy, and public policy. His work is cited in numerous fields, including international trade, international business, and international political economy/political science, and he has given over 650 presentations to private sector, public policy, and educational audiences.
Before joining IMD, Evenett was a Professor of International Trade and Economic Development at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, where he served as the Academic Director of the St Gallen MBA for over a decade. Previously he taught at Oxford University and held fellowships at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC. Evenett has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins University twice and was Visiting Professor of Corporate Strategy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business three times.
In 2023, he was appointed Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.
Luz Maria de la Mora is the Director of UNCTAD's Division on International Trade and Commodities. As a former Vice-Minister for International Trade and decades of government and private sector positions, Ms. de la Mora developed a career in international trade policy, negotiation, operations, and trade promotion.
During her tenure as Vice-Minister for International Trade of Mexico from 2018 to 2022, Ms. de la Mora led Mexico's trade and investment policy, overseeing fourteen free trade agreements with 51 countries. To bolster Mexico's development, she steered discussions in the World Trade Organization, the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Pacific Alliance, among others. She also coordinated policy dialogues and handled private sector consultations.
Ms. de la Mora holds a PhD in Political Science from Yale University, USA, a Master's degree in International Affairs from Carleton University, Canada, and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México, Mexico.
She is fluent in English and Spanish, and proficient in French.
Chantal Line Carpentier joined UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s Division on International Trade and Commodities (DITC) in 2014, after serving as Chief, UNCTAD New York Office of the Secretary-General. She brings to the Branch over 25 years of work experience in international trade, and environmental and agro-economics.
Prior to working with UNCTAD, she supported the Commission on Sustainable Development and served as Major Groups (of non-State actors) coordinator for the UN Rio+20 Conference and the SDGs negotiations at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). She also supported the sustainable consumption and production and sustainable agriculture negotiations.
As Head of the North American Free Trade Agreement Commission for Environmental Cooperations, she lead work on the nexus of environment, economy, and trade. She also served as Agro-environmental Policy Analyst for Winrock International, and post-Doctoral fellow/Brazil office manager for the International Food Policy Research Institute.
She has an extensive list of publications on sustainable agriculture, trade and environment, sustainable consumption and production, financing for sustainable development, stakeholder engagement, global value chains, micro, small and medium enterprises, and economic empowerment of women.
She obtained a PhD. in Agro-Environmental Economics from Virginia Technology and MSc. and BSc. from McGill University.
Regina Asariotis is Chief (a.i.) of the Trade Logistics Branch in the Division on Technology and Logistics of UNCTAD. She is also Chief of the Policy and Legislation Section, with responsibility for work on transport law and policy.
This includes extensive research, expert dialogue and technical cooperation on implications of climate change for maritime transport and trade, with focus on climate change impacts and adaptation for seaports and other critical transport infrastructure, including in SIDS. Before joining UNCTAD in 2001, Regina was a Senior Lecturer in Maritime Law at the University of Southampton. She holds a German law degree, an LL.M, as well as a PhD from the University of Hamburg and is a Barrister (England & Wales) and Attorney at Law (Greece), as well as Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb).
Clovis Freire Junior is Head a.i. of Commodities Branch, and Chief of Commodity Research and Analysis Section, of the Division on International Trade and Commodities of UNCTAD in Geneva. He is an Economist specialized in economic diversification and strategies for building productive capacities in developing countries. His work supports the structural transformation and sustainable development of commodity-dependent developing countries.
He has over 20 years of work experience in the United Nations in programmes related to commodity dependence, least developed countries, technology and innovation for development, and disaster risk reduction. He holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), Brazil, a Master’s degree in Computer Sciences from the University de Brasília (UnB), an MBA in Strategic Management of Information Systems from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), Brazil, and a PhD in Economics from the Maastricht University, in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Teresa Moreira is the Head of the Competition and Consumer Policies Branch, Division on International Trade and Commodities at UNCTAD. She joined UNCTAD in 2016 and previously served as the Consumer Director-General of Portugal and as a Member of the Board of the Portuguese Competition Authority when it was first created. She also served as Portugal’s Director-General and Deputy Director General for International Economic Relations and held senior positions at the Directorate-General for Competition.
Teresa worked for over 20 years as a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon in the areas of International Economic Law and European Law, as well as European Competition Law and European Economic Law at the graduate level.
Teresa holds a degree in Law and a master’s degree in European Law (European Competition Law) from the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
