This chapter explores the evolution of United Nations efforts to promote a fairer international trade system, focusing on the agenda advanced by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since the 1960s. It situates current debates within the broader historical struggle of the Global South to reform the global trade system, culminating in the 1974 Declaration on a New International Economic Order (NIEO). Despite these longstanding initiatives, global trade structures remain marked by persistent asymmetries, including commodity dependence, limited autonomy in policy design, and unequal value distribution within global value chains. The chapter critiques the shift from structuralist and development-oriented frameworks such as the NIEO to the technocratic orientation of the Sustainable Development Goals, which largely endorse WTO-based governance without addressing its structural limitations. Drawing on UNCTAD’s analyses, it argues that meaningful reform requires re-embedding development priorities into trade rules, reclaiming policy space, and reshaping multilateralism around equal footing and economic transformation.