Commodities

A/RES/68/203No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 17dCommodities, published in 2014.

What other versions does this mandate have?

22 versions · 1987–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

2025A/RES/80/124CommoditiesLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/138CommoditiesCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/194CommoditiesCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/204CommoditiesCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/72/205CommoditiesCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Commodities Commodity Markets Commodity Prices Developing Countries Trade in Commodities Trade Policy

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2015.

2015A/70/184World commodity trends and prospects report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

25 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on world commodity trends and prospects;

Underscores the need for further efforts to address excessive commodity price volatility, in particular by assisting producers, especially small-scale producers, in managing risk;

Calls upon the international community to support the efforts of commodity-dependent developing countries to address the factors that create structural barriers to international trade and impede, inter alia, diversification, including tariff and non-tariff barriers, limited access to financial services resulting in scarce resources for investing in the commodity sector, weak infrastructure, particularly regarding both the cost and availability of transportation and storage, and lack of skills in producing and marketing alternative products;

Calls for, in that regard, the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations with a development-oriented outcome that ensures, inter alia, greater market access for products from developing countries;

Welcomes the convening of the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Bali, Indonesia, held from 3 to 7 December 2013, and stresses the need for a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and development-oriented outcome;

Calls for a coherent set of policy actions at the national, regional and international levels to address excessive price volatility and support commodity-dependent developing countries in mitigating negative impacts, in particular by facilitating value addition and enhancing their participation in commodity and related product value chains, by supporting large-scale diversification of these economies and by encouraging the use and further development of market-oriented risk management tools, instruments and strategies;

Stresses the importance of developing and strengthening agricultural policies and strategies that recognize and address women’s critical role in food security and improved nutrition outcomes as an integral part of both short- and long-term responses to food insecurity and malnutrition, excessive price volatility and food crises in developing countries;

Recognizes the potential for innovation, productivity improvements and the promotion of non-traditional exports in most commodity-dependent developing countries, particularly in Africa, and calls for enhanced support by the international community as well as exchanges of experience in these areas within the framework of South-South economic cooperation;

Underscores the importance of increased investments in infrastructure as a means of promoting agricultural development and enhancing commodity diversification, including value-added production, and trade, and urges the international community to assist commodity-dependent developing countries to mainstream trade as well as sound investment and financial policies as key elements of development strategies, based on national circumstances and development priorities, and to invest in and support research and development of agriculture productivity;

Recognizes the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security by the Committee on World Food Security in 2012;

Also recognizes the ongoing inclusive consultative process within the Committee on World Food Security to develop voluntary and non-binding principles for responsible agricultural investments that are intended for all stakeholders that are involved in, benefit from or are affected by these principles;

Stresses that technical assistance and capacity-building aimed at improving the commodity export competitiveness of producers is particularly important, especially in Africa, and invites the donor community to provide the necessary resources for commodity-specific financial and technical assistance, in particular for human and institutional capacity-building, as well as infrastructure development of developing countries, with a view to reducing their institutional bottlenecks and transaction costs and enhancing their commodity trade and development in accordance with national development plans;

Also stresses that the Aid for Trade initiative should aim to help developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, to build the supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure that they need to assist them to implement and benefit from World Trade Organization agreements and, more broadly, to expand their trade;

Recalls the agreement to keep under regular review, by the Ministerial Conference and appropriate organs of the World Trade Organization, the impact of the results of the Uruguay Round on the least developed countries as well as on the net food-importing developing countries, with a view to fostering positive measures to enable them to achieve their development objectives, and in this regard calls for the implementation of the Marrakesh Ministerial Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the Reform Programme on Least Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries;

Encourages developed countries that have not already done so and developing countries declaring themselves in a position to do so to take steps towards the goal of realizing timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration adopted by the World Trade Organization in 2005;

Strongly encourages international financial institutions and development banks to assist developing countries, in particular commodity-dependent developing countries, in managing the effects of excessive price volatility;

Reaffirms that every State has and shall freely exercise full permanent sovereignty over all its wealth, natural resources and economic activities;

Recognizes the importance of increasing efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in the management of public and private sector revenues in developed and developing countries derived from all commodities and commodities-related industries, including final processed goods, in support of development;

Also recognizes the important contributions of the Common Fund for Commodities and other international commodities organizations, and encourages them, in cooperation with the International Trade Centre, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and other relevant bodies, to continue to strengthen coordination among them and to study ways to establish greater stability in the commodities market, as well as to enhance activities in developing countries to improve access to markets and the reliability of supply, enhance diversification and the addition of value, improve the competitiveness of commodities, strengthen the market chain, improve market structures, broaden the export base and ensure the effective participation of all stakeholders;

Stresses that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and its partners, in the spirit of inter-agency cooperation and multi-stakeholder partnerships and within their respective mandates, should continue to engage actively in collaborative research and analysis of the commodity problematique and related capacity and consensus-building activities, with a view to providing regular analysis and policy advice relevant to the sustainable development of commodity-dependent developing countries, particularly low-income countries;

Encourages giving appropriate consideration to the issue of commodities in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda;

Emphasizes the importance of facilitating accession to the World Trade Organization, particularly for commodity-dependent developing countries, in full compliance with its rules;

Underlines the urgent need for the provision of and access to trade finance to commodity-dependent developing countries, given the tightened access to all types of credit and noting debt sustainability;

Stresses the importance of the continuing substantive consideration of the sub-item entitled “Commodities”, and decides to include the sub-item in the provisional agenda of its seventieth session, under the item entitled “Macroeconomic policy questions”;

Requests the Secretary-General, in collaboration with the secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, to submit to the General Assembly at its seventieth session a report on the updated assessment of commodity trends and prospects, long-term commodity prices and ways to strengthen coordination among international commodities organizations and other relevant international organizations.

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