The Oecd at Fifty: Some Observations on the Evolving Nature of an International Organization

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was created in December 1960 and the Convention establishing it came into force in September 1961, but the OECD was not created from scratch. The OECD is, technically speaking, the successor to the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC)1. The future of the OEEC came into question soon after the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958. Created ten years before to administer aid provided by Canada and the United States for the reconstruction of Europe under the European Recovery Program, known as the Marshall Plan, the OEEC had effectively fulfilled its mandate.2 The discussions on a possible transformation of the OEEC had already started in 1952, following the end of the Marshall Plan, but these talks accelerated in the late 1950s. On December 21, 1959, the Heads of State and Government of France, the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United Kingdom met in Paris to discuss "the important changes that have taken place in the international economic situation."3 The communique that was issued on that occasion is worth mentioning in some detail. First, the four countries: agreed that virtually all of the industrialised part of the free world is now in a position to devote its energies in increased measure to new and important tasks of co-operative endeavour with the object of: a) furthering the development of the less developed countries, and b) pursuing trade policies directed to the sound use of economic resources and the maintenance of harmonious international relations, thus contributing to growth and stability in the world economy and to a general improvement in the standard of living.4 Second, The Heads of State and Government, recognising that the method of furthering these principles requires intensive study, have agreed to call an informal meeting to be held in Paris in the near future. They suggest that the members and participants of the Executive Committee of the OEEC and the Governments whose nationals are members of the Steering Board for Trade of the OEEC should be represented at this meeting. It is proposed that an objective of such a group should be to consider the need for and methods of continuing consultations dealing with the above-mentioned problems.5 A few weeks later, in January 1960, a meeting in Paris of a Special Economic Committee, consisting of the ministers of thirteen countries and a representative of the EEC, adopted a Resolution on the Study of the Reorganisation of the OEEC.6 The Resolution appointed, inter alia, a group of experts7 (the "Group of Four") to prepare a report on the reorganization of the OEEC, and, notably, to "identify those functions at present performed by the OEEC which should continue to be the subject of international economic co-operation under the aegis of the proposed improved organisation"8 The Group of Four submitted its report, A Remodelled Economic Organisation: A Report by the Group of Four (Report), in April 1960, which included specific proposals for the new organization's "membership, name and structure, [as well as] the necessary juridical and transitional arrangements, and conclude[d] with a suggested draft Convention."9 This Report served as the basis of the Report of the Preparatory Committee of the "reconstituted Organisation" which led to the adoption on December 14, 1960, of the Convention establishing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In analyzing these historical documents, in particular the Report produced by the Group of Four, it is striking to see both the degree of continuity between the OEEC and the OECD, in terms of substance, structure, and methodology, and at the same time, the extent to which the OECD has evolved to adapt to a rapidly changing world. As the Group of Four indicated in its Report in remarkable foresight: "[i]n short, it became clear that, while some of the objectives of the OEEC had not yet been completely achieved, Members would in future be devoting a greater part of their collective efforts to dealing with problems and tasks arising out of their relationships with rest of the world. …