Proclamation 6805

by Bill Clinton

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

American exports bolster the quality of life for countless people, supporting 10.5 million jobs here at home and supplying popular American products to millions worldwide. They fuel our Nation's economy, create high-wage jobs for our citizens, and link us to countries everywhere. That is why my Administration supported NAFTA and brought the Uruguay Round GATT negotiations to a successful conclusion. As we celebrate World Trade Week this year, we pause to recognize the many ways in which "Exporting is Everybody's Business."

In the two years since my Administration launched this country's first National Export Strategy, America has led the way in trade promotion and advocacy efforts, strengthening existing programs and developing new initiatives to serve U.S. exporters. The Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC) has worked to create a more streamlined, responsive, and effective system that enhances our Nation's economy and helps our firms to compete successfully around the globe.

During the past year, we have worked to develop a new, innovative trade finance strategy. The Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Trade and Development Agency, the Small Business Administration, and the Departments of the Treasury and Commerce have provided new forms of trade finance that help our firms to compete in the global marketplace. We are addressing the removal of unnecessary and ineffective export controls and streamlining the licensing process, liberalizing controls on a range of high-technology products and increasing the effectiveness of multilateral control regimes.

With the restructuring of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, now the Commercial Service of the United States, the Department of Commerce is working in partnership with the businesses it serves, promoting U.S. exports, advocating U.S. business interests abroad, assisting U.S. firms to realize their export potential, and supporting the export promotion efforts of other public and private organizations. By the end of this year, 15 U.S. Export Assistance Centers will be open across the country, offering virtually every American business person a coordinated, multi-faceted, international trade team close at hand.

Already, U.S. exports to our neighbors in the Southern Hemisphere exceed $92 billion, generating good jobs for our workers and demonstrating our competitiveness throughout the international marketplace. At the Summit of the Americas this past December, our Nation reaffirmed its commitment to the extension of free trade throughout the Hemisphere by the year 2005-an opportunity that promises to bolster our economy even further. These efforts, combined with our progress with the countries of the Organization for Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), mean trade gains of historic proportions. And that means more jobs for hardworking Americans.

Still, much remains to be done. U.S. exporters must be given every opportunity to sell our products freely and fairly. Our companies must meet the challenge of venturing into new markets. They must keep quality high and production efficient, while marketing American goods and services to new customers around the world. The work is difficult, but the rewards are great: a strong economy, better goods and services, and a brighter future for all of us.

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 21 through May 27, 1995, as "World Trade Week." I invite the people of the United States to join in appropriate observances to celebrate the potential of international trade to create prosperity for all.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and nineteenth.

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 3:15 p.m., May 23, 1995]