Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 100 / Wednesday, May 22, 1996 / Presidential Documents 25769

Proclamation 6899 of May 20, 1996

World Trade Week, 1996

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

International commerce is vital to domestic economic growth—perhaps more

so now than at any other time in recent U.S. history. Our Nation’s prosperity

depends in large part on our ability to develop and produce high-quality

products, identify and open markets, and promote American goods and

services across the globe. The U.S. jobs supported by exports are increasingly

important, paying an average of 13 percent more than other positions and

accounting for nearly one out of ten American workers and one in five

of those in the manufacturing sector. The theme of this year’s World Trade

Week, ‘‘Winning with Exports,’’ is an invitation and a challenge to U.S.

firms to reap the benefits of doing business abroad.

My Administration has developed a National Export Strategy that places

special emphasis on helping small- and medium-sized companies seize trade

opportunities. As part of this plan, we have created a country-wide network

of U.S. Export Assistance Centers to provide information and capital to

businesses seeking to expand. The results speak for themselves; in 1995,

actions taken by Centers like those in Chicago and Baltimore dramatically

increased the number of U.S. firms entering new markets and boosting

export sales.

Trade is also a means of fostering understanding and stability around the

world, helping our Nation to build partnerships founded on mutual prosperity. American commerce and investments are strengthening new democracies

whose viability depends on economic growth and raised standards of living.

From South Africa, to Central Europe, the Baltic States, Russia, Ukraine,

and the Newly Independent States, exporting is allowing our country to

play a pivotal role in settling and solidifying crucial foreign markets. Trade

is also essential to troubled regions such as the Middle East, Northern

Ireland, and Bosnia, where job creation and economic improvements play

an important role in efforts to achieve peace.

As we observe World Trade Week, 1996, let us strive to give our Nation’s

exporters every opportunity to sell products freely and fairly and help our

companies to meet the challenge of exploring markets abroad. Their efforts

to maintain efficient, high-quality production and to promote American goods

and services to an international clientele will lead to a stronger economy

and a brighter future for us all.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution

and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 19 through May

25, 1996, as World Trade Week. I call upon the people of the United

States to observe this week with ceremonies, activities, and programs that

celebrate the potential of international trade.
25770 Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 100 / Wednesday, May 22, 1996 / Presidential Documents

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day

of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and

of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred

[FR Doc. 96–13102

Filed 5–21–96; 10:58 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

and twentieth.

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