Statement by the President Upon the Departure of the U.S. Delegation to the Meeting of the Economic Policy Committee of OEEC.

THE UNITED STATES delegation leaves this weekend to participate in the Paris meeting of the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), April 18-19. Now that the U.S. has ratified the convention establishing the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)-the body which will succeed OEEC--the Paris meeting takes on a high and symbolic significance. It will be the first meeting of the Economic Policy Committee to be conducted within the new spirit of the OECD-a spirit which the United States has undertaken to foster by assuming the responsibilities of full membership.

We are entering a new era in which the day-to-day economic affairs of the western nations are becoming more and more closely intertwined. We face problems and opportunities to which we must respond in full awareness of the common stake in sound decisions. To overcome recession and unemployment, to achieve and maintain high rates of growth, to encourage world economic development--these are no longer merely independent national goals to be pursued by each of our twenty member countries in isolation from the others. They are also common goals which call for sustained common action through economic policies which reflect our common interests.

The strength of the delegation which will represent us at the EPC meeting underscores the importance which we attach to this new departure in our economic relations with Western Europe and Canada and the seriousness with which we have accepted our obligations in the new organization. The delegation includes Walter W. Heller, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, as head of the delegation; Robert V. Roosa, Under Secretary of the Treasury; Ambassador John W. Tuthill, Alternate U.S. Permanent Representative to the OEEC; William McChesney Martin, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; and Edwin M. Martin, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.

It is our hope to develop in the OECD a continuous working partnership in a spirit of flexibility and mutual accommodation among the officials responsible for economic policy in these twenty countries. The Paris meetings will be the first of many designed to build and strengthen relationships for dealing with common economic problems as they unfold.

The American people will follow with deep interest and high hopes the progress of this new venture in Western cooperation and unity.