American Foreign Policy, Current Documents

(a) in the territory of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for European Economic Co-operation of 16th April, 1948, the legal capacity, privileges, exemptions, and immunities provided for in Supplementary Protocol No. I to that Convention;

(b) in Canada, the legal capacity, privileges, exemptions, and immunities provided for in any agreement or arrangement on legal capacity, privileges, exemptions, and immunities entered into between the Government of Canada and the Organisation;

(c) in the United States, the legal capacity, privileges, exemptions, and immunities under the International Organisations Immunities Act provided for in Executive Order No. 10133 of 27th June, 1950; 6 and 68

(d) elsewhere, the legal capacity, privileges, exemptions, and immunities provided for in any agreement or arrangement on legal capacity, privileges, exemptions, and immunities entered into between the Government concerned and the Organisation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, duly empowered, have appended their signatures to this Protocol.

DONE in Paris, this fourteenth day of December, Nineteen Hundred and Sixty, in the English and French languages, both texts being equally authentic, in a single copy which shall be deposited with the Government of the French Republic, by whom certified copies will be communicated to all the Signatories.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ON THE APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 15 OF THE CONVENTION ON THE ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Article 15 of the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (hereinafter called the "Convention") provides that decisions, recommendations and resolutions (hereinafter called "acts") of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation shall require approval of the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (hereinafter called the "Council") to be effective after the coming into force of the Convention.

Pursuant to a Resolution adopted at the Ministerial Meeting of 22nd-23rd July, 1960, a Preparatory Committee has been established and instructed to carry further the review of the acts of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, to determine which acts should be recommended to the Council for approval, and to recom

Text in Convention for European Economic Cooperation, With Related Documents, Paris, April 16, 1948 (Department of State publication 3145), pp. 27–38. "Public Law 291, 79th Cong., approved Dec. 29, 1945 (59 Stat. 669; A Decade of American Foreign Policy: Basic Documents, 1941-1949, pp. 167-172). 615 Fed. Reg. 4159.

See footnote 64 above.

mend, where necessary, the modifications required in order to adjust these acts to the functions of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.70

At the said Ministerial Meeting it was agreed that there should be the maximum possible degree of certainty as regards approval by the Council of acts of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation in accordance with the recommendations of the Preparatory Committee; it was also agreed that Canada and the United States, not being Members of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation, should have a certain latitude with respect to the said recommendations.72

Therefore the Signatories of the Convention have agreed as follows: 1. The representatives of the Signatories on the Council shall vote for approval of acts of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation in accordance with the recommendations of the Preparatory Committee, except as otherwise provided hereinafter.

2. Any Signatory which has not been a Member of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation shall be released from the commitment set out in paragraph 1 with respect to any recommendation or part thereof of the Preparatory Committee which it specifies in a notice to the Preparatory Committee no later than ten days after the deposit of its instrument of ratification or acceptance of the Convention.

3. If any Signatory gives notice pursuant to paragraph 2, any other Signatory, if in its view such notice changes the situation in regard to the recommendation or part thereof in question in an important respect, shall have the right to request, within fourteen days of such notice, that the Preparatory Committee reconsider such recommendation or part thereof.

4. (a) If a Signatory gives notice pursuant to paragraph 2 and no request is made pursuant to paragraph 3, or, if such a request having been made, the reconsideration by the Preparatory Committee does not result in any modification of the recommendation or part thereof in question, the representative on the Council of the Signatory which has given notice shall abstain from voting on the act or part thereof to which the recommendation or part thereof in question pertains.

(b) If the reconsideration by the Preparatory Committee provided for in paragraph 3 results in a modified recommendation or part thereof, the representative on the Council of the Signatory which has given notice may abstain from voting on the act or part thereof to which the modified recommendation or part thereof pertains.

See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, p. 331, footnote 23. 71 See ibid., footnote 25.

7 Canada and the United States had accepted on June 2, 1950, an invitation to establish, on an informal basis, a working relationship with the OEEC whereby the two countries could join with the OEEC in the consideration of common economic problems. Regarding the United States relationship to the OEEC, see American Foreign Policy, 1950-1955: Basic Documents, pp. 992 (footnote 1), 1436, and 1459-1460.

(c) Abstention by a Signatory pursuant to sub-paragraph (a) or (b) of this paragraph with respect to any act or part thereof shall not invalidate the approval of that act or part which shall be applicable to the other Signatories but not to the abstaining Signatory.

5. The provisions of this Memorandum relating to actions to be taken before the voting in the Council shall come into force upon its signature; the provisions relating to the voting in the Council shall come into force for each Signatory upon the coming into force of the Convention as regards that Signatory.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned have appended their signatures to this Memorandum.

177. FIRST MINISTERIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE OECD, PARIS, NOVEMBER 16-17, 1961: Communiqué Issued November 17, 1961 74

The First Ministerial Council of the OECD, meeting in Paris on November 16 and 17 under the chairmanship of the Canadian Minister of Finance, the Honorable Donald M. Fleming, surveyed the economic prospects of the vast community of member nations comprising more than five hundred million people in Europe and North America and examined its world responsibilities.

The Ministers noted the substantial economic growth that had taken place in most member countries during the past decade. They agreed on the desirability of establishing a target for further growth. Under conditions of price stability and the necessary provision for investment, rapid growth facilitates the harmonious development of world economy, helps to promote a liberal world trading system, provides a necessary foundation for rising living standards, and ensures a high level of employment. It will enable industrialized member countries to contribute more effectively to the development of less-advanced countries both through the provision of financial and technical assistance and through a widening of their export markets and the increase of their export revenues.

Accordingly the Ministers set as a collective target the attainment during the decade from 1960 to 1970 of a growth in real gross national product of fifty percent for the twenty member countries taken to

73 See footnote 64 above.

"Department of State press release No. 798, Nov. 18, 1961 (text as printed in the Department of State Bulletin, Dec. 18, 1961, pp. 1018-1020)..

gether.75 The rate of growth may vary from year to year and from country to country. Moreover, being a collective target, individual countries may fall short of or exceed it in varying degrees.

Each country will have to make its contribution to collective growth in accordance with its own special circumstances. This contribution will be supported and made more effective by simultaneous expansion in other countries. The setting of a joint target for economic growth is itself recognition of the increasing interdependence of the separate economies of the twenty member countries. Given their needs, it is desirable that member countries in the process of development should have a relatively higher rate of growth. A fifty percent increase in output during the decade will call for deliberate national economic policies and their coordination through the Organization's procedures of consultations and cooperation.

In this respect the Ministers put particular emphasis on the necessity of a proper equilibrium in the external payments of member countries as a condition for the fulfillment of the growth target mentioned above. It was therefore necessary to develop still further the close coordination of financial and economic policies and the mutual sense of responsibility between deficit and surplus countries in order to attain the common objective of accelerated economic growth while further improving the international payments mechanism. The various means already available to relieve temporary pressures on particular currencies were of great value, but they should be further developed.

Price stability is of the highest importance in order to assure to the population the full benefit of economic growth and to maintain equilibrium in international payments. Excess demand should, therefore, be prevented and efforts made to improve productivity and labor mobility. The gains through higher productivity should be fairly distributed, and increases in the level of money incomes should be kept generally in line with increases in productivity, which alone provide the means to a durable increase in the standard of living. In countries with payments deficits it is particularly important that the competitive position is not undermined through cost increases. Liberal import policies are another means of assuring price stability. The surplus countries have a special responsibility to use this and other means available to them which contribute to both external and internal equilibrium.

The Ministers emphasized that a special effort must be made to promote growth in less-developed member countries and thus endeavor to reduce the very great disparities in incomes per head. In these countries there are great possibilities for achieving a higher standard of living through more intensive use of natural and human resources. They stressed their conviction that more investment and more training are necessary conditions for such a development. To

For the text of a statement by the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Ball) before the Ministerial Council of the OECD Nov. 16, in which he proposed aiming for this rate of growth in the 9-year period, 1961-1970, see ibid., pp. 1014-1018.

induce a real increase in the inadequate growth rates of such member countries the Ministers instructed the Organization to encourage and assist such countries in their efforts, including the preparation and achievement of sound development plans.

In order to achieve the growth target, increasing use of scientific training and research is needed. Their utilization in agriculture and industry should be closely studied. The Organization should further develop its work in these fields.

The Ministers noted that, thanks to increased productivity and mechanization, agricultural production had risen considerably in the OECD countries and they recognized that agriculture would also play an important role in attaining the collective growth target. The Ministers agreed that necessary adjustments within agriculture should be carefully studied. They thought that increased productivity within agriculture should contribute to general price stability. In addition, agriculture could, in many countries, make manpower available for the expansion of industry. In this connection the importance was recognized of insuring that the agricultural population should share in the rising standard of living resulting from economic growth. The Ministers agreed with the OECD Ministers of Agriculture meeting of October [16,] 1961 that agricultural policies should be the subject of continuous consultation and confrontation within the Organization in order to insure that industrial and agricultural production. developed harmoniously.

The Ministers were determined that increased production should lead to a significant increase in the aid to the less-developed countries. In 1960, the aggregate flow of resources, both public and private, from member countries and Japan, a member of the Organization's Development Assistance Committee, amounted to about $7.5 billion. The Ministers agreed that a further increase of development assistance was needed and they welcomed the intention of the Development Assistance Committee to institute, beginning in 1962, an annual review of aid efforts and policies of its member countries. The main purpose should be to increase the efforts and to adapt them better to the needs and circumstances of the recipient countries through exchange of experience regarding bilateral aid. The Ministers expressed the desire that the Development Assistance Committee should encourage greater cooperation among donor countries in their bilateral aid efforts and that a common approach should be applied increasingly to specific problems of economic development assistance. They also recognized the need for full cooperation with and support of multilateral institutions providing development aid, and they welcomed the work going on to define measures to encourage private capital exports to less-developed countries.

The Ministers recognized that successful economic expansion in lessdeveloped countries can best be achieved through carefully prepared programs based on an assessment of needs and resources. They, therefore, welcome individual and regional efforts by less-developed countries in drawing up such programs. The Ministers instructed the Organization to study the functions and structure of the contem

« Previous Continue »

Books