ABSTRACT
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development held in 1964 was the first international conference devoted to North-South issues. The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) began in March 1964 and concluded in June of the same year. UNCTAD I was the first real international conference of all members of the UN dedicated exclusively to considering North-South issues. UNCTAD I grew out of a proposal for convening a world conference specifically to discuss the economic problems of less developed countries, first made in the declaration of nonaligned countries at Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961. The committee on trade in manufactures and semimanufactures was to focus on the issue of preferences-the newest and most controversial issue at UNCTAD I. In the months preceding UNCTAD I, the less developed countries made considerable efforts to prepare themselves on the issues and to coordinate their negotiating positions and strategies.
