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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is one of that distinguished family of international institutions the history of which can be traced back to the period immediately after the Second World War, such as the International Monetary Fund (1944), the United Nations (1945), NATO (1949), and the Council of Europe (1949). The OECD grew out of the offer made by US Secretary of State General George C. Marshall in June 1947 to assist European economic reconstruction by making available generous amounts of American aid under the European Recovery Programme, better known as the Marshall Plan. At the meeting held in Paris in July 1947 between the US government and the European countries willing and able to participate in the Plan, three key conditions were laid down: the Europeans were to dismantle any barriers to trade between each other; they were to co-operate in formulating their requirements; and they were jointly to oversee the implementation of the Plan. In General Marshall's words: `There must be some agreement among the countries of Europe as to the requirements of the situation. . . It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for this Government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a programme designed to place Europe on its feet economically This is the business of the Europeans. The inidative, I think, must come from Europe. . . The programme should be a joint one, agreed to by a number of, if not all, European nations.' Clearly, a new institution was required, and in 1948 the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) was set up in Paris. Although General Marshall's offer had been extended to any European state, the Soviet Union prohibited any of the countries in its sphere of influence from taking part, so the OEEC was composed solely of Western European countries. Founder members were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland,...