The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Parliamentarians' Conference was held in Paris on November 12–16, 1962, and was attended by parliamentarians from all fifteen NATO countries.1 One of the Conference's principal objectives was to look into the possibility of turning itself into an Atlantic Assembly, and it took the first step toward this goal by accepting its political committee's recommendation to set up a special subcommittee, consisting of experienced parliamentarians, which would study the problems of such a reform. According to the political committee's report, the Atlantic nations were served by a multitude of separate international institutions, each controlled by a separate executive council. There were no formal means by which they could consult, plan, or act in coordination. The report complained that the present arrangements under which the NATO Parliamentarians' Conference received information from NATO was inadequate: it did not receive a formal annual report and did not have the right to put questions either to ministers or formally to the NATO secretariat.

The Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held its regular semiannual ministerial meeting at Ottawa on May 22–24, 1963. According to the communique released at the end of the meeting, the Ministers emphasized that the enduring character of the North Atlantic alliance, founded on the principles of interdependence and common defense, constituted a basic guarantee for the maintenance of peace.

Representatives of six Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) governments (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey) and the government of Yugoslavia signed an agreement setting up the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies on May 21, 1962, in Paris. The center was established to deal with the shortage of scientific and technical personnel hampering agricultural and economic development in the Mediterranean area. A draft agreement establishing the center had been approved by the OECD Council on January 20, 1962. The center was to be run by a governing body consisting of leading figures in agricultural and economic higher education and research.

The first part of the eighth ordinary session of the Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) took place in Paris from June 4 to 8, 1962. Mr. Arthur Conte (French Socialist) was re-elected President. In addition to the usual reports on defense questions, the Assembly took up the question of the negotiations between the European Common Market and the United Kingdom. On the solution of the Commonwealth problem in the negotiations, the Assembly recommended that special provisions should be worked out to cover a transitional period for imported foodstuffs, especially from the temperate zone. On political union, the Assembly's recommendation proposed that it should take the form of a Community institution, with an executive independent of the member states and responsible to an elected assembly and a ministerial council voting in some cases by qualified majority.

The Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) held its eighteenth session on November 12–16, 1962, under the chairmanship of Mr. Peers L. Carter, United Kingdom permanent representative to the European Office of the United Nations. The Canadian ambassador informed the Council that Canada would resign its membership in ICEM, effective December 31, 1962. The Canadian delegate stressed that his government's departure from ICEM in no way diminished Canada's interest and concern for refugees. He said that the Canadian government would examine from year to year proposals to make a special voluntary grant to ICEM for the transport of refugees. The Council took note of the Canadian government's decision with deep regret.

The Organization of American States (OAS) Council met in a special session on October 23, 1962, in Washington, D.C., to discuss the threat to the security of the western hemisphere posed by missile bases clandestinely erected in Cuba by the government of the Soviet Union. The Council voted to act as provisional Organ of Consultation under the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance of 1947 (Rio Treaty). In that capacity, the Council approved the same day a draft resolution calling for the immediate dismantling and withdrawal from Cuba of all missiles by a vote of 19 in favor, none opposed, with I abstention (Uruguay). The delegate of Uruguay explained that he had abstained on the vote because he had not yet received instructions from his government.

The twentieth session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held at Geneva from October 23 to November 16, 1962. The Contracting Parties decided to convene a ministerial meeting in the early part of 1963 to consider a program for effective liberalization and expansion of trade in both primary and secondary products. In this connection, full weight would be attached to the importance and urgency of negotiating solutions to the problems of trade in primary products and to the additional trade problems of less developed countries. The proposal that such a meeting should be held was made jointly by the governments of the United States and Canada.