UK statement at the UNCTAD Conference, October 2025
Source: gov.uk (2025-10-22)

UK statement delivered at the 16th UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva on 22 October 2025

Ministers, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,

The United Kingdom is honoured to join you at the UN’s sixteenth conference on trade and development.

It could not come at a more timely juncture.

Throughout this week, we’ve heard first hand from developing country ministers about the increasingly complex and interconnected challenges their countries face:
- Conflicts and their spillovers, including Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,
- Debt servicing costs,
- Current and future impacts of climate change, and
- The current economic uncertainty.
These all demand our attention. They also demand renewed multilateralism.

A multilateral trading system with a reformed WTO at its core is key to our shared ambitions for prosperity. The importance of the WTO and its capacity to provide trade stability for all its Members cannot be overstated – but we will all need to engage in necessary reforms for this to be an ongoing reality.

We are under no illusions about the challenges and the difficulties that Members are facing at present. But UNCTAD and the WTO working alongside each other can be a cornerstone of global growth and development.

It is our firm belief that trade creates jobs, stimulates investment, and attracts technology. No country has lifted itself out of poverty without increasing its trade with the world.

And it is for this reason that the UK has long championed free, fair and inclusive trade, and have supported developing countries to harness the power of trade at the WTO and beyond.

Our Developing Countries Trading Scheme not only cuts tariffs but offers the most generous rules of origin of any preferential trading scheme. This is our unilateral offer. No ties. Nothing asked in return.

We are grateful for UNCTAD’s expertise which fed into the design of rules of origin in the Developing Country Trading Scheme, including our latest changes announced in the UK Trade Strategy in June.

These changes support intra-regional trade in Asia and Africa and ensure that LDCs benefit from zeroed tariffs on apparel after they graduate.

We equally recognise that if we are going to realise the huge development opportunities, particularly in Africa, it requires unlocking transformational investment – a fundamental pillar in our approach to development.

Through our new Growth and Investment Partnerships we will mobilise public and private finance to co-invest in development using UK-backed instruments like British International Investment – known as BII.

And it is part of our UK commitment to build on what was delivered at FFD4.

Financing for development and trade must go hand in hand to unlock inclusive growth and resilience. The UK will continue to advocate for investment as a driver of sustainable development, alongside gender equality and climate-smart trade policies.

Which brings us to UNCTAD.

This week has highlighted the value of this organisation, which brings us together to diagnose challenges and prescribe solutions.

We have seen all week the value that developing countries see in UNCTAD’s work.

The organisation offers not just a vital voice on trade, but also on investment, debt, productive capacities, and technology.

Indeed, for the UK too - we see real value in UNCTAD’s rigorous analytical work, the technical support it offers and the platform it gives to debate those issues that are most critical to the developing world.

But in the face of the challenges outlined earlier, we must also be open and creative in focusing on what works – and how we work together better.

We commend the leadership of Rebeca Grynspan, who has driven meaningful improvements in transparency, impact, and responsiveness—ensuring the organisation’s work remains relevant and transformative in today’s rapidly evolving economic landscape.

But to paraphrase what UNCTAD Secretary General said on Monday: To be a multilateralist must also mean being a reformer.

And as Members we must go further. We must establish clearer structures, we must empower the voices of experts, and we must give UNCTAD the flexibility to adapt to the most pressing issues.

Key to this is aligning UNCTAD with the principles of UN80 and to work better within the system.

For us this means coordinating and specialising, not duplicating and competing.

Both UNCTAD and the wider system need to evolve to be able to support developing countries to address the challenges they face – and support the vital role that trade can play.

The UK looks forward to the rest of the conference and delivering on its negotiated outcome document over the next four years.