Countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD and its activities

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an international association of a number of developed countries with the aim of reconstructing a common European policy under the auspices of the implementation of the so-called Marshall Plan. Consider in general terms its main composition and activities.

Marshall Plan

So, the beginning was laid back in 1948 as part of the plan outlined a year earlier by US Secretary of State George Marshall. As you know, the result of the Second World War was a serious economic decline throughout Europe. And if the Soviet Union managed on its own, rallying the ranks with the iron hand of its dictator, then Europe lay in ruins, and at the same time was a rather fragmented structure.

For the most part, the history of the Iron Curtain begins here. The International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was conceived in the United States as a panacea for the post-war troubles that had befallen Europe. In 1948, a meeting of representatives of 16 Western European states was held in Paris. An interesting fact is that the leaders of the countries of Eastern Europe were invited to it. However, the Soviet government saw this as a threat to their own interests and did not allow them to attend this meeting.

Iron Curtain

The first members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are, of course, the United States and several Western European states, which received financial assistance from the American side in accordance with the Marshall Plan. These included the UK, France, Italy, West Germany and the Netherlands. It was these countries that received the maximum cash injections, and in decreasing order of the amount of finance invested by the United States in them. However, the main condition for the direction of cash flows, the Americans put the elimination of any communist currents in the party systems of these countries. Thus, the US began to take over the politics of Western Europe. Another important fact is the intensification of the political confrontation of the countries of this block in relation to the Soviet Union and the countries that fell under the influence of the latter as a result of the post-war partition.

US Benefits

Of course, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was a direct vested interest of the United States, since suchThus, they were not only able to wisely invest a huge amount of money - more than ten billion dollars, but also profitably sell agricultural products that were vital to countries that were in ruins, especially in terms of food production. Consumables were sent to the demands of the member countries of the alliance for the means of production, since during the years of the war the United States was able to create large volumes of surpluses of such products. As a result, this assistance resulted in even greater dependence of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on the United States.

Development and composition of the OECD

In the 60s, the membership expanded significantly and continues to increase to this day. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development currently has 34 members. The headquarters is located in Paris, and the governing body is a council of representatives of the participating countries. All actions of its members are coordinated, and the development of any decisions is carried out on the basis of consensus. Let's list the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In addition to the previously mentioned participants for 2015, the following are listed: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Greece, Denmark, Israel, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Canada, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Finland, Czech Republic, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden, Estonia, South Korea and Japan.

Activities

The main activity of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is to coordinate and analyze activities on the following issues: money laundering, or rather, the fight against this phenomenon, in addition, the suppression of tax evasion, bribery, corruption and other problems of monetary relations of various social structures.

In fact, this is a platform for multilateral negotiations between participating countries on the above issues. It develops recommendations for members of the organization in solving various economic problems that they face in the framework of economic activities in their territory.

Modern history

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is constantly considering membership proposals from various countries around the world. For example, in 1996, such applications were submitted by the B altic countries and Russia, but they were all rejected. It was only in 2010 that Estonia was allowed to join the coalition.

In 2005, the issue of accepting China into the alliance was considered. It all started with the proposal of the OECD Secretary General, who said that at one time such countries as Portugal and Spain, in which their own dictatorships flourished, were accepted as members of the organization. In addition, political prerequisites should not interfere with economic issues. According to him, China is the mostpromising economy on a global scale. It supplies the largest volumes of steel to the world market. And many more advantages were brought by the Secretary General of the OECD in support of his idea. However, the issue has not yet been resolved. However, there is some progress regarding the DPRK, since the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was given the opportunity to check the state of the country. Which is usually a harbinger of a state joining the OECD.

Russia and the OECD

Uneasy relations bind our country and the OECD. The issue was raised by Russia back in 1996, as already mentioned. However, at first there was a firm refusal due to the reasons for the country's huge discrepancy with the standards of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This does not prevent the leadership of the Russian Federation from continuing to lobby on this issue.

These actions led to the fact that in 2007 it was decided to start negotiations on membership by the leadership of the OECD. An important step along this path was Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2012. The next milestone was the announcement of the head of the OECD that in 2015 Russia will accept membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, provided that all the necessary conditions for this are met. However, this did not happen. Moreover, it was recently announced that the decision on this issue is postponed indefinitely. So what are we waiting for, representatives of culture, thirty years ago denying any influence of the West onus.

Conclusion

The organization, created as a mechanism to help Europe destroyed after the Second World War, built on the self-confidence of the political leaders of the United States of America, eventually acquired the features of a self-developing and self-regulating union of the world's largest economies, acting for the good of the world. Indeed, the issues of eliminating tax evasion, bribery and corruption need to be addressed. And although these phenomena of human relationships themselves have roots in the depths of people's consciousness, nevertheless, even such an attempt commands respect. In general, the position of the organization inspires hope that humanity will cope with economic problems by combining the efforts of all countries on this planet towards their solution.