Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law

The Senate on March 16, 1961, by a vote of 72 to 18, advised and consented to the ratification of the Convention on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and its three protocols signed at Paris December 14, 1960. The Organization is a consultative forum capable of initiating agreements on the use and development of economic resources, on removing obstacles to trade and current payments, on liberalization of capital movements, on the flow of capital to less developed countries. The 20 signatories are the industrialized states of Europe, Canada and the United States. A vociferous opposition to the convention by interests that erroneously thought it might reduce tariffs was heard by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Whether on that account or because they realized the importance of the convention itself, members of that committee in two executive sessions carefully probed official spokesmen to satisfy themselves that the convention did not affect the powers of the President or Congress. As a consequence, the resolution approving the convention took this unusual form: Having regard to and in reliance on the statement in the letter of January 16, 1961, from Secretary of State Herter to President Eisenhower and transmitted by him to the Senate on January 17, 1961, that “the U. S. representative will not have any additional powers in substantive matters to bind the United States after the convention enters into force than now exist in the Executive, but that any act of the Organization outside the power of the Executive will require action by Congress or the Senate, as the case may be, before the United States can be bound,” and having regard to and in reliance on the testimony of Secretary of the Treasury Dillon and Under Secretary of State Ball in behalf of the administration, and having regard to and in reliance on the Opinion of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State dated March 6, 1961, and quoted in the committee report of this convention:Resolved (Two-thirds of the Senators present concurring therein), That the Senate advise and consent to the ratification of the Convention on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, together with two protocols relating thereto, signed at Paris on December 14, 1960, by representatives of the United States of America, Canada, and the 18 member countries of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (Executive E, 87th Congress, 1st session), with the interpretation and explanation of the intent of the Senate that nothing in the convention, or the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification thereof, confers any power on the Executive to bind the United States in substantive matters beyond what the Executive now has, or to bind the United States without compliance with applicable procedures imposed by domestic law, or confers any power on the Congress to take action in fields previously beyond the authority of Congress, or limits Congress in the exercise of any power it now has.