[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 21 (Monday, May 27, 1996)]
[Pages 900-901]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6899--World Trade Week, 1996

May 20, 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.

[[Page 901]]

    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.
    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 and 
twentieth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:58 a.m., May 21, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on May 22.