Commodity Diplomacy Within the United Nations System

Abstract

Commodity diplomacy has for more than half a century preoccupied the minds of the international society. The first commodity to have preoccupied the minds of governments was tin. Series of conferences were held to regulate its market after the first Bandung Conference was created, until 1956 when it became provided with a proper agreement under the aegis of UNO. But since the formation of UNCTAD, all commodities have since been negotiated under its aegis except the Raw Material Conferences which took place in 1974 directly under the General Assembly of UNO. Since the economic boom of the Korean War, the share of the developing countries in world trade has persistently fallen, and since the bulk of raw material trade is vital to the economy of the developing world, a more global approach to finding solutions to trade problems became necessary. Thus the first conference of the UN on Trade and Development was convened in Geneva in conformity with Resolution 1785 (xvii) of 8 December 1962 of the General Assembly of the UNO from the 23 March to 16 June 1964.¹