[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 96 (Wednesday, May 19, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 27437-27438]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-12842]



[[Page 27435]]

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Part VI





The President





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Proclamation 7196--World Trade Week, 1999



Proclamation 7197--National Defense Transportation Day and National 
Transportation Week, 1999
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  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 96 / Wednesday, May 19, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 27437]]

                Proclamation 7196 of May 17, 1999

                
World Trade Week, 1999

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                World Trade Week provides a valuable opportunity to 
                recognize the enormous importance of exports to the 
                United States economy and our way of life. In recent 
                years, exports have contributed to almost one-third of 
                our economic growth, helping to make today's economy 
                the strongest in a generation. Unemployment is at a 30-
                year low, business investment is booming, and private 
                sector growth is on the rise. Every day, an increasing 
                number of U.S. companies and farmers realize how 
                crucial exports are to their bottom lines. Every day, 
                more and more American workers benefit from the fact 
                that exporting firms pay higher salaries, experience 
                fewer closings, and generate jobs at a faster rate than 
                do firms that do not export. That is why we must 
                continue to open markets and expand trade 
                opportunities. At the same time, we must work to ensure 
                that increased international trade benefits the world's 
                people, promotes the dignity of work, and protects the 
                environment and the rights of workers.

                As important as world trade is to our economy today, we 
                are only beginning to utilize the commercial potential 
                of the newest international marketplace: the World Wide 
                Web. Today the Internet connects nearly 150 million 
                people around the world. Each day 52,000 additional 
                Americans join that number, and users are making as 
                many as 27 million purchases on the Web each day. 
                Forecasts predict that, in just a few years, global 
                electronic commerce--e-commerce--will grow to more than 
                $300 billion annually. By 2005 Internet usage in 
                countries around the world may account for more than $1 
                trillion worth of global commerce.

                Recognizing the enormous power and promise that e-
                commerce holds for American businesses and consumers, 
                my Administration is working to build a framework for 
                global electronic commerce that will keep competition 
                free and vigorous, protect consumers, guarantee 
                privacy, and give users--not governments--the 
                responsibility of supervising Internet trade. Working 
                with the Congress, industry, and State and local 
                officials, we have enacted legislation that places a 3-
                year moratorium on new and discriminatory taxes on 
                electronic commerce. We also ratified an international 
                treaty to protect intellectual property online. Last 
                year, representatives of 132 countries followed our 
                lead and signed a WTO Ministerial Declaration to 
                refrain from imposing customs duties on electronic 
                commerce.

                Working with our trading partners, industry, and 
                consumer advocates, we are extending traditional 
                consumer protections to the arena of electronic 
                commerce. Without imposing burdensome regulations that 
                might stifle growth and innovation, we have offered 
                incentives to online companies to give consumers the 
                protections they need to conduct business on the 
                Internet with security and confidence. Finally, we are 
                working to speed the completion of the global 
                information infrastructure, a series of networks that 
                sends messages and images at the speed of light.

[[Page 27438]]

                Appropriately, the theme of this year's World Trade Day 
                observance is ``Trade, a Worldwide Web of 
                Opportunity.'' Linking businesses and customers around 
                the clock, 7 days a week, the Web provides even the 
                smallest companies with the opportunity to do business 
                on a global scale. We are about to enter a new and 
                unprecedented era in world trade, and America's 
                businesses, workers, and consumers are poised to 
                embrace this opportunity and continue our leadership of 
                the world economy.

                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 16 through May 22, 1999, 
                as World Trade Week. I invite the people of the United 
                States to observe this week with events, trade shows, 
                and educational programs that celebrate the benefits of 
                international trade to our economy.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-third.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 99-12842
Filed 5-18-99; 11:25 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P