O.E.C.D. SET UP

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29389, 16 December 1960, Page 14

O.E.C.D. SET UP

20 Nations In

Group

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PARIS, December 14.

' Twenty nations, including the United States and Canada, today signed a 21-article convention setting up. a trans Atlantic Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The 0.E.C.D., which is expected to start working on September 30 next in Paris, will replace the 18-nation Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, which, through United States help, salvaged the war-ravaged economies of Western Europe. The United States and Canada were only associated with the 0.E.E.C., but are full members of the new organisation along with Britain and the 17 other O.E.E.C. countries. A major objective of the O.E.C.D. is to give economic aid and technical assistance to the industrially under-developed areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The Under-Secretary of State (Mr Douglas Dillon) signed for the United States, and the Finance Minister (Mr Donald Fleming) for Canada. Britain’s signatories were the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Llyod) and the president of the Board of Trade (Mr Maudling). Other countries which signed the convention are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Greece, Iceland. Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.

Speaking as chairman of the 0.E.E.C., Mr Lloyd said he warmly welcomed the signing of the new convention. “I believe it marks a milestone—a milestone not only in Europe’s internal economic relations but in the history of economic co-operation between the countries on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.