Deputy Secretary-General
UNCTAD
Joakim Reiter (Sweden) took up the position of Deputy Secretary-General on 1 April 2015.
Mr. Reiter, who has held high-level diplomatic positions as a representative of his country, has extensive experience in trade negotiations and wide-ranging expertise in trade and development and in dealing with multilateral organizations.
Immediately prior to joining UNCTAD, Mr. Reiter was the Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, heading the Department for International Trade Policy. In that role, he oversaw the formulation of Sweden’s policies and priorities with respect to, inter alia, trade and investment issues, traderelated technical assistance and corporate social responsibility, as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UNCTAD and the European Union’s bilateral and regional trade negotiations. He also represented Sweden on the OECD Trade Committee.
From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Reiter held the position of Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the WTO in Switzerland, where he also served as chair of the WTO bodies on services (2012), goods (2014) and trade policy reviews (2013), as well as the Working Party on the accession of Liberia. Mr. Reiter was Minister Counsellor and Head of the Trade Section at the Representation of Sweden to the European Union in Belgium from 2008 to 2011. In this capacity he represented Sweden in the Trade Policy Committee of the Council of the European Union, which he chaired during the Swedish Presidency in 2009.
From 2004 to 2008, he served at the European Union Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission, where he was involved in a number of multilateral, regional and bilateral negotiations with countries at different levels of development. In 2006, he served as Vice-Chair of the OECD Working Party of the Trade Committee. During the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in 2001, Mr. Reiter represented Sweden at UNCTAD and in the European Union’s negotiations with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and Chile.
Before that, Mr. Reiter held various positions within the Swedish National Board of Trade, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industry. During this time he was Special Adviser to the Minister for Industry and Trade and responsible for drafting the Government of Sweden’s strategies and communications on equitable globalization and global financial stability. Mr. Reiter also took part in the formulation of the Government’s policy coherence for development.
Mr. Reiter was born in Sweden in 1974 and is a graduate of the London School of Economics (Master of Science, Economics), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Lund University (Master of Arts, Political Science), Sweden. He has authored academic articles, as well as a book on different trade, investment and financial issues.
He is married and has two children