142. Editorial Note
On December 7, Under Secretary Merchant joined Secretary of Commerce Mueller in Washington at a meeting of the National and Regional Export Expansion Committees. Merchant discussed the relationship between U.S. export trade and the balance of international payments and U.S. national security as well as the Foreign Service’s role in the export expansion program. For text of his statement, see Department of State Bulletin, January 2, 1961, pages 3–7.
Two days later, the Department of State announced that on December 10, Under Secretary Dillon would leave Washington for Paris to attend a ministerial meeting to complete negotiations establishing the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). On December 13, the participants in the meeting issued a joint communiqué announcing that they had agreed to sign a convention creating the OECD and summarizing its contents. For text of the communiqué, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1961, pages 333–335.
In his statement at the signing ceremony on December 14, Dillon declared the event heralded “the dawn of a new era in international economic cooperation.” “The United States,” he continued, “wants the OECD to be a strong and effective organization. We regard it as a major mechanism for promoting healthy economic growth both within our own countries and throughout the free world. Acting in concert we can bring impressive intellectual, scientific, and economic resources to bear upon the great tasks before us.” (Department of State Bulletin, January 2, 1961, pages 9–11) For text of the OECD convention, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1961, pages 492–501.