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

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an international association of a number of developed countries with a view to the reconstruction of a pan-European policy under the aegis of the implementation of the so-called Marshall Plan. Let's consider in general outline its main composition and activities.

Marshall Plan

So, the beginning was laid back in 1948 as part of a 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 in the whole of Europe. And if the Soviet Union coped with its own forces, rallying the ranks with the iron hand of its dictator, then Europe lay in ruins, and at the same time it was quite a disjointed structure.

By and large, the history of the Iron Curtain begins here. The International Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was conceived in the United States as a panacea for post-war ills that piled on Europe. In 1948, a meeting of representatives of 16 Western European countries was held in Paris. An interesting fact is that leaders of the countries of Eastern Europe were invited to attend . 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 countries, which were provided with financial assistance from the American side according to the Marshall plan. These include the United Kingdom, France, Italy, West Germany and the Netherlands. It was these countries that received the maximum cash injections, and in the order of decreasing the amount of finance invested by the US in them. However, the main condition for the direction of cash flows Americans put out the elimination in the party order of these countries of any communist currents. Thus, the US began to tidy up the policy of Western Europe. Another important fact is the intensification of the political confrontation of the countries of this bloc in relation to the Soviet Union and to countries that fell under the influence of the latter as a result of the post-war partition.

US Benefits

Naturally, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was a direct self-interest of the United States, because in this way they not only could competently invest a huge amount of money - more than ten billion dollars, but also profitably sell agricultural products vital to countries in ruins, Especially in terms of food production. To the demands of the countries-participants of the alliance to provide the means of production, they were sent to consumer goods, since during the war years the US was able to create large amounts of surpluses of similar products. As a result, this assistance was expressed in an even greater dependence of the countries of the organization of economic cooperation and development on the United States.

Development and composition of OECD

In the sixties the membership of the participants has significantly expanded and continues to grow 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 the 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 us list the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In addition to the participants mentioned earlier for 2015, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland , Finland, Czech Republic, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden, Estonia, South Korea and Japan.

Activities

The main activity of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is coordination and analytical work on the following issues: money laundering, to be more precise, combating this phenomenon, in addition, suppression of tax evasion, bribery, corruption and other problems of monetary relations between various social structures.

In fact, it is a platform for carrying out multilateral negotiations between participating countries on the above-mentioned issues. She develops recommendations for the members of the organization in dealing with the various economic problems that they face in the framework of economic activity on their territory.

Modern History

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is constantly considering proposals for accession from various states from all over the world. For example, in 1996 such statements were submitted by the Baltic countries and Russia, but all of them were rejected. And only in 2010 Estonia was allowed to join the coalition.

In 2005, the issue of China's admission to the alliance was considered. It all began with the proposal of the Secretary General of the OECD, who stated that at one time countries such as Portugal and Spain, in which prospered their own dictatorships, were admitted to membership in the organization. In addition, political prerequisites should not interfere in economic matters. In his view, China is the most promising economy on a global scale. It supplies the largest volumes of steel to the world market. And the Secretary General of the OECD has also taken many advantages in support of his idea. However, the issue has not yet been resolved. Nevertheless, there has been some progress with regard to the DPRK, as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been given the opportunity to verify the state of the country. What is usually a harbinger of the accession of the state to the ranks of the OECD.

Russia and OECD

Uneasy relations bind our country and OECD. The issue was raised by Russia in 1996, as already mentioned. However, at first there was a firm rejection for reasons of the country's immense disparity 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 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 in this direction was the accession of Russia 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 the membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in carrying out all the necessary conditions for this. However, this did not happen. Moreover, it was recently announced that the decision on the matter was postponed indefinitely. So we are waiting, and we, representatives of culture, thirty years ago, denied any influence of the West on us.

Conclusion

The organization, created as a mechanism to help the 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 economic systems for peace. Indeed, the issues of eliminating tax evasion, bribery and corruption need to be addressed. And although these phenomena of human relationships themselves are rooted in the depths of people's consciousness, nevertheless even such an attempt causes 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 in the direction of their solution.