European Community

In pursuance of its policy of containment of communism, as we have seen, the USA came out with the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan to support the war-torn European countries to reconstruct their economy. An organisation, OEEC (Organisation for European Economic Cooperation) was formed in April to overseer the disbursement of Marshall Aid under the auspices of the European Recovery Programme (ERP). The OEEC disbursed aid to its sixteen member countries. The US wanted the OEEC to remove tariff barriers between themselves so that it was easier for American companies to do business.

OEEC obliged and followed free trade in for obtaining further financial aid. With the US aid, by , the western European countries had returned to their pre-war production levels. The success made them to move forward and OEEC transformed itself into the OECD