The OECD turns sixty

Audio 04:07

OECD headquarters in Paris.

AFP / Archives

By: Dominique Baillard Follow

8 min

Today, the organization for economic cooperation and development is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary.

With a physical demonstration at its headquarters in Paris, and in the presence, often virtual, of several leaders from around the world.

What is the use of this international organization that we often call the club of rich countries?

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The OECD effectively brings together so-called advanced economies; its 37 member states now represent 60% of world GDP.

It was designed to promote the development and enrichment of its member states.

Under precise conditions: those of the market economy, that is to say under the conditions of its godmother, the American liberal democracy.

Because the OECD was founded on the rubble of the organization created after World War II to distribute Marshall Plan aid to Western European countries.

The United States, Canada, Japan, and even Australia are joining it.

After the fall of the Wall, the countries of the east in turn joined this organization and its ideology.

Turkey, South Korea and the State of Israel are members.

And it is attracting more and more today: Brazil and Argentina are candidates.

For Colombia, which has just entered, it's a bit like making it through the selection for the FIFA World Cup.

Prestigious thanks to its expertise on the most diverse subjects

Among the general public, we do not necessarily know the OECD, but all parents of students have heard of the Pisa report, a global report on educational attainment produced every three years by examining the results of tests carried out in 79 countries. .

Each time, its publication gives rise to its share of surprises, good or bad, debates and controversy in so-called advanced countries where we discover that the school more or less keeps its promises.

The OECD is primarily used to assess public policies

That is, how much and how the taxpayer's money is used.

Its report on development aid has also become a benchmark.

With within it the development aid committee, which brings together thirty donor countries, it methodically scrutinizes the development of this aid.

This agency provides around 500 reports year after year on the economic issues of its choice.

It also disseminates standards with an international scope, for example in financial matters, it has greatly contributed to the fight against tax evasion by putting an end to banking secrecy.

A secretariat for globalization

The current leader of the OECD, Angel Gurria, wanted to make it the secretariat for globalization.

A wish made when he arrived in 2006. That is to say before the financial debacle of 2008, before the trade war, before protectionism spread throughout the world.

If it will undoubtedly have to be given another name, this ambition remains intact.

The many candidates to succeed the Mexican will have to take up the challenge, finding how to integrate China, unavoidable by its size but undesirable by its model contrary to the values ​​of the OECD.

To remain the benchmark agency that it has become under the leadership of Angel Gurria, the OECD is constantly taking up new issues.

Artificial intelligence, but also climate change and the fight against inequalities, are among these new priorities.

It is at the OECD that the tax on digital giants, which could redesign global taxation, is hotly debated, we will know by June if an agreement is possible, when Joe Biden will be installed in the White House.

IN SHORT

In China, the market regulator is fining Alibaba and Tencent, the national digital champions.

 Both are punished for having made new acquisitions in 2017 and then in 2018 without having previously requested the authorization of the anti-trust committee.

Amount of the fine: 500,000 yuan, or 76,000 dollars.

This is the latest manifestation of the takeover of the new Chinese internet giants.

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