ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, ORGANISATION FOR

(OECD) international organization founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. Members in the late 1990s included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The convention establishing the OECD was signed on Dec. 14, 1960, by 18 European countries, the United States, and Canada and went into effect on Sept. 30, 1961. It represented an extension of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), set up in 1948 to coordinate efforts in restoring Europe's economy under the Marshall Plan. One of the fundamental purposes of the OECD is to achieve the highest possible economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in member countries; at the same time it emphasizes maintaining financial stability. The organization has attempted to reach this goal by liberalizing international trade and the movement of capital between countries. A further major goal is the coordination of economic aid to developing countries. Lacking the power to enforce its decisions, the OECD was essentially a consultative assembly which pursued its program through moral suasion, conferences, seminars, and numerous publications. Its staff, based in Paris, came to more than 1,000 persons. Although the rule of unanimity inhibited its impact, the OECD was considered to have had a significant influence as an advisory body. Maintaining contact with many governmental and international agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the organization became a clearinghouse for a vast amount of economic data. It published more than 350 new titles annually on a variety of subjects. The range of its interests may be indicated by its published works on general statistics, agriculture, scientific research, capital markets, tax structures, energy resources, lumber, air pollution, educational development, and development assistance. Its bimonthly magazine, The OECD Observer, constituted a useful source of information on economic and related social matters. Annual evaluations of individual member countries' economies were also issued.