Secretary-General Appoints Joakim Reiter of Sweden as Deputy Secretary-General of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in consultation with the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), has decided to appoint Joakim Reiter of Sweden as Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD at the Assistant Secretary-General level.  Mr. Reiter will succeed Petko Draganov to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedicated service and commitment to UNCTAD.

Mr. Reiter brings to the position a wealth of international experience at the senior level, including in the trade and development field dealing with multilateral organizations, senior political experience as a representative of his country, hands-on expertise on technical cooperation and donor relations, and highly relevant negotiations skills within the intergovernmental machinery.

He is currently Deputy Director-General, heading the Department for International Trade Policy within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, which is responsible for the interaction with UNCTAD, World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  From 2011 to 2014, he was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the WTO, Switzerland, where he also served as chair for the WTO bodies on services, goods and trade policy reviews.

From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Reiter was Minister Counsellor and Head of Trade Section at the Representation of Sweden to the European Union, Belgium.  He served at the European Union Directorate General for Trade in European Commission from 2004 to 2008.  Prior to that, he held various positions within the Swedish National Board of Trade, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Industry, including as Special Advisor to the Minister for Industry and Trade.

Born in Sweden in 1974, Mr. Reiter holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and a Master of Arts from University of Lund, Sweden.  He is married and has two children.