Evening star., 1962-01-25
Partial Text Of Kennedys Message on Trade

Follo,pino Is a partial tert
OF President Kennedy's trade
message to Congress today:
TO THE CONGRESS OF
THE UNITED STATES:
Twenty-eight years ago oul
Nation embarked upon a new
experiment in international re-
lationShips - the Reciprocal
Trade Agreements Program
-. The application of this pro-
gram brought growth and or
der to the free world trading
system. Our total exports, aver
aging less than So billion a year
in the three years preceding
enactment of the law, have now
increased to over $40 billion.
On June 80, 1862, the nego-
tiating authority under the last
extension of the Trade Agree
ments Act expires. 1t must be
replaced by a wholly new in
Strument. A new American
trade initiative is needed to
meet the challenges and op-
portunities of a rapidly chang
ign world economy.
In the brief period since this
act was last extended, five fun
damentally new and sweeping
developments have made obso-
lete our traditional trade pol
icy:
The growth of the European
Common Market-an economy
which may soon nearly equal
our own, protected by a single
external tariff similar to our
own-has progressed with such
success and momentum that it
has surpassed its original time
table, convinced those initially
skeptical that there is now no
turning back and laid the
groundwork for a radical al
teration of the economics of the
Atlantic Alliance. Almost 80 per
cent of the free worlds indus
trial production (if the United
Kingdom and others success
fully complete their negotia-
tions for membership may
soon be concentrated in two
great markets - the United
States Of America and the ex-
panded European Economic
Community A trade policy ade-
quate to negotiate item by item
tariff reductions with a large
number of small independent
states will no longer be ade-
quate to assure ready access
for ourselves-and for our ira
ditional trading partners in
Canada, Japan, Latin America
and elsewhere - to a market
nearly as large as our own,
whose negotiators can speak
with one voice but whose in
ternal differences make it i'm
possible for them to negotiate
item by item.
The growing pressures on our
balance of payments position
have, in the past few years.
turned a new spotlight on the
Importance of increasing
American exports to strengthen
the international position of
the dollar and prevent a steady
drain Of our gold reserves. To
maintain our defense, assist
ance and other commitments
abroad, while expanding the
free flow of goods and capital,
we must achieve a reasonable
equilibrium in our interna-
tional accounts by offsetting
these dollar outlays with dollar
sales.
The need to accelerate our
own economic growth, following
a tagging period of seven years
characterized by three recess
sions, is more urgent than it
has been in yearS-underlined
by the millions of new job op-
pertunities which will have to
be found in this decade to pro-
vide employment for those al
ready unemployed as well as
an increasing flood of younger
workers, farm workers seeking
new opportunities, and city
workers displaced by techno-
logical change.
The Communist aid and trade
offensive has also become more
apparent in recent years. So
Wet bloc trade with Al nom
Communist countries in the
less-developed areas of the
globe has more than tripled in
recent years; and bloc trade
missions are busy in nearly
every continent attempting to
penetrate, encircle and divide
the free world.
The need for new markets fol
Japan and the developing ma.
tiOns has also been accentuated
as never before-both by the
prospective impact of the EEC's
external tariff and by their own
need to acquire new outlets fol-
their raw materials and light
manufacturers.
To meet these new challenges
and opportunities, I am today
transmitting to the Congress
a new and modern instrument
of trade negotiation-the Trade
Expansion Act of 1862. AS I said
in my state-of- -the-U Union ad.
dress, its enactment could well
affect the unity of the West
the course of the Cold War alc
the growth of our Nation for q
generation or more to come"
l. The Benefits