Organization for European Economic Cooperation

There was announced in Paris, in July, a series of meetings attended by representatives of the eighteen member countries of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), as well as by representatives of the United States, Canada, and the European Communities, which were concerned with the framework and scope of the new Organization for European Cooperation and Development (OECD), intended to replace OEEC. Discussion centered on whether or not the solution of trade problems should be included as one of the objectives of the future organization, with differences of opinion over the scope of the organization being expressed by proponents of the Europe of the old OEEC versus participants in the European Economic Community (EEC) and others, the former convinced of the need for a European forum of discussion of trade questions, and the latter preferring to work out such problems through the world organization of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). A special report, considered at a previous meeting of the same representatives in May, had recommended the establishment of an organization which was to be largely a consultative body with no definite responsibility for trade questions, but because of disagreement on the part of some of the smaller countries, notably Sweden and Switzerland, a working party had been set up, which, at the July meeting, recommended the establishment of a trade committee, whose task was to be the examination of all trade questions, subject to some liberalization of OEEC obligations.