The government has declared Argentina’s bid to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) a matter of national interest in a decree published Monday in the national gazette. The norm also created an inter-ministry commission dedicated to taking the actions required to enter the organization.

The OECD is an international group of 38 mostly European and North American countries which is informally known as the global rich countries’ club. Its headquarters are in Paris, and its council opened membership talks with Argentina in January 2022, along with Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania.

When President Javier Milei was inaugurated on December 10, Foreign Minister Diana Mondino announced that Argentina was accepting an invitation to start the process of joining the organization.

The new commission created by the government will lead the accession process and design an initial memorandum to assess if or how Argentina meets the OECD’s standards. It will also be in charge of supervising and carrying out all necessary actions to ensure Argentina complies with the requirements for joining.

The commission will be made up of ministers Diana Mondino (Foreign Relations), Luis Caputo (Economy), Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice), Sandra Pettovello (Human Capital) and Mario Russo (Health), as well as Presidency Secretary Karina Milei.

The accession process typically takes years and requires a rigorous evaluation by over 20 technical teams over certain standards, mainly economical, the country has to comply with. It may also require the country to change legislation, public policies and government practices.

Countries that wish to join the OECD are required to abide by a convention expressing the group’s values, which include preserving individual liberties, respecting democratic values, the rule of law, and human rights, as well as maintaining a transparent free market economy. 

Observers have noted that joining the OECD is typically interpreted as a nod that a country will adopt market-friendly policies and make it easier to do business.

Since its creation in 1961, only four Latin American countries have been able to join the OECD: Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica.

Last August, Argentina’s former president Alberto Fernández had announced that Argentina would join the BRICS, a bloc of emerging economies in the Global South that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. However, Milei rejected the BRICS’ invitation to join. Before becoming president, he had said he “would not encourage dealing with communists” when asked what he thought about joining the bloc.