The United States is proud to have been one of the founding members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a multilateral organization that today brings together 30 democracies with market economies from North and Latin America, Europe and the Pacific Rim.

Headquartered in Paris, France, the OECD was established in 1961 as the successor to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), created to implement the Marshall Plan in the wake of World War II. The OEEC was established as a permanent organization to continue work on a joint recovery program and in particular, to distribute Marshall Plan aid throughout Europe.

In September 1961 the OEEC was superceded by the OECD, becoming a world-wide body with 19 founding members. Those members included the European members of the OEEC plus the United States and Canada.