UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a stark warning at the UNCTAD XVI conference, highlighting that the rules-based global trade system is at risk of derailment, leaving developing countries ‘short-changed’ amidst rising protectionism, mounting debt, and an inadequate international financial architecture. He outlined a four-point plan to steer global trade towards justice and equitable development.
On October 22, 2025, in Geneva, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) XVI conference with an urgent message: the global trade system, despite pockets of dynamic growth, is profoundly failing developing nations. His remarks underscored a looming crisis, characterized by escalating trade barriers, a deepening debt burden, and an international financial architecture that offers little safety net for those who need it most.
UNCTAD’s Enduring Mandate: A Legacy of Justice
Guterres began by reminding attendees of UNCTAD’s foundational truth, established over 60 years ago in the same city: development is not automatic. It demands deliberate action, policies, institutions, and investments that serve people and deliver justice to the developing world through trade. UNCTAD’s history is rich with achievements that have pushed the global trade system towards greater equity. These include:
- The creation of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) category, providing a framework for targeted support.
- The adoption of principles for a New International Economic Order, aiming to reshape global economic governance.
- The establishment of the Common Fund for Commodities, designed to stabilize commodity markets crucial for developing economies.
- Ongoing efforts to close gaps in the global trading system, propose concrete solutions, and advocate for reform of the international financial architecture.
- The formation of the Global Crisis Response Group in 2022, led by Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan, to ensure trade flow during conflicts and crises.
These initiatives highlight UNCTAD’s critical role as a long-standing advocate for developing countries, pushing for a system that recognizes their unique challenges and aspirations.
A World of Contradictions: Growth Amidst Derailment
The global economy today is a paradox of progress and peril. Guterres pointed to remarkable shifts, with three-quarters of global growth now originating from the developing world. The services trade is booming, growing nine percent last year, while digital commerce expands rapidly. Frontier technologies add trillions to the world economy, regional trade agreements have multiplied sevenfold since the 1990s, and South-South collaboration is on the rise, fostering value chains, technology transfer, and cross-border investment.
Yet, beneath this dynamism, profound inequalities persist. Developing countries continue to be “short-changed,” facing growing uncertainty, retreating investment, and turmoil in supply chains. Trade barriers are escalating, with some Least Developed Countries (LDCs) confronting “extortionate tariffs of 40 percent,” despite contributing barely one percent of global trade flows. Guterres conceded that while protectionism might be inevitable in some situations, it should at least be rational.
Adding to the concern is the rising risk of trade wars for goods, even as services trade grows. Alarmingly, military expenditure trends show a world increasingly investing “more in death than in people’s prosperity and well-being.” Geopolitical divisions, pervasive inequalities, the worsening climate crisis, and new and protracted conflicts are all rippling across the global economy. The result is soaring global debt, persistent poverty and hunger, an international financial architecture inadequate for developing countries, and a rules-based trading system at risk of derailment.
Guterres’ Blueprint for Action: Four Pillars for a Fairer Future
Guterres asserted that the outcome document being crafted at UNCTAD XVI would serve as a vital blueprint to navigate these headwinds. He outlined four critical areas of action:
1. A Fair Global Trade and Investment System
In 2024, countries adopted the Pact for the Future, which includes a global recommitment to the multilateral trading system. This pact aims to promote export-led growth in developing countries through preferential trade access and special and differential treatment, alongside vital reforms to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The UN chief emphasized the need to help countries move beyond commodity dependence, build links to global value chains that generate jobs and prosperity, and develop new tools for developing countries to compete and benefit from the explosive growth in services trade. This move is particularly crucial as tariffs from major players, such as those imposed by the U.S. administration, significantly impact global trade dynamics, as reported by Reuters.
2. Urgent Financing for Development
Many developing countries are victims of limited fiscal space, slow growth, and a crippling debt crisis. A staggering 3.4 billion people now live in countries that spend more on debt servicing than on health or education. At June’s Financing for Development conference in Sevilla, leaders reached a consensus on several key actions:
- Unlock more finance for developing countries.
- Strengthen their capacity to mobilize domestic resources.
- Triple the lending power of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to make them “bigger and bolder.”
- Leverage more private finance.
- Ease debt burdens with new instruments to reduce borrowing costs and risks, including those from climate shocks, and speed up support for countries facing debt distress.
- Reform global financial institutions to better represent today’s world and the needs of developing countries.
Guterres also announced the creation of a Sevilla forum on debt, aimed at addressing the entrenched debt crisis. UNCTAD chief Rebeca Grynspan underscored the severity of the situation, stating, “what we have now is perpetual crisis management dressed up as normality,” and expressed hope that the forum would build a framework where “debt serves development instead of consuming it.”
3. Bridging the Technology Divide
Technology, high-quality data, and innovations are powerful drivers of economic progress. However, not every country has the necessary access or technology to compete. The Global Digital Compact, adopted last year, includes actions to close the digital divide and ensure that frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain become more accessible to all countries, not just the wealthy ones. This ensures a more equitable distribution of technological benefits.
4. Aligning Trade Policies with Climate Objectives
Trade policies must be harmonized with ambitious climate action and support a just transition. This entails:
- Integrating trade strategies into countries’ new national climate plans, due before the UN climate conference in Brazil next month.
- Helping developing countries harness the limitless power of renewable energy through increased financial and technical support.
- Defining a credible roadmap to mobilize $1.3 trillion annually in climate finance by 2035 for developing countries.
- Delivering justice in production and trade for developing countries, particularly those with large reserves of critical minerals essential for the energy transition.
Last year, Guterres launched the Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals to develop guiding principles that ensure local communities benefit from their resources with fairness, transparency, sustainability, and human rights at the core. He thanked UNCTAD for its participation in this effort and urged governments, businesses, and civil society to collaborate with the United Nations to implement these principles. More details on the Secretary-General’s comprehensive remarks can be found on the United Nations official press release page.
Continuing the Vital Work for Justice
The UNCTAD XVI conference serves as a potent reminder of the original impulse behind the organization: a demand from developing countries for a voice in a system often designed without them. Since its inception, UNCTAD has consistently stood by these nations, advocating for justice and equitable participation. As the world faces a “whirlwind of change,” the ongoing work of ensuring all countries can harness the power of trade and development to drive their economies forward remains as vital as ever.
