[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 21 (Monday, May 25, 1998)]
[Pages 883-884]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7097--World Trade Week, 1998

May 15, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The American economy is experiencing its longest period of sustained 
growth in more than a generation, with more than 15 million new jobs, 
the lowest unemployment rate since 1970, and the lowest inflation rate 
in more than 30 years. Much of this economic expansion can be attributed 
to our overseas trade. Today, America is the world's leading exporter. 
Our exports sustain 12 million jobs--jobs that on average, pay more than 
jobs not tied to exports. The extraordinary vigor of America's economy 
reflects the 1998 theme of World Trade Week: ``Exporting Pays Off.''
    Our unparalleled capacity to develop and market high-technology 
products and processes has given us a strong competitive edge in the 
international marketplace in everything from aerospace to agriculture. 
Americans have led the world into the Information Age, and we are poised 
to lead it into an exciting new era of electronic commerce. Also central 
to our success in the global economy has been our ability to open 
foreign markets for American goods and services. During the past 5 
years, my Administration has negotiated more than 240 new trade 
agreements and strengthened efforts to eliminate unfair trading 
practices in order to help American workers and businesses compete in an 
international arena that is open and fair and where trade rules are 
enforced.
    To keep America growing, and to maintain our leadership in the 
global economy, we must expand our exports. We must sustain our 
advantage in information and other technologies by creating a business 
climate that encourages investment, by continuing our support of 
education and research in basic science and technology, and by ensuring 
that American workers are the best-educated and best-trained work force 
in the world. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that we will need 
more than a million new high-skilled workers during the next 10 years to 
power the information technology field. We must provide working 
Americans with the skills and training they need to seize these 
promising employment opportunities.
    Our exports and our economic strength depend upon our access to an 
open, stable, and growing world market. The nations of the world are 
becoming increasingly intertwined in a global economy. We must continue 
our efforts to remove foreign barriers to American goods and services, 
to open new markets, and to keep them open. This week, I will travel to 
Geneva, Switzerland and address the World Trade Organization to 
underline just how important free and open trade is to our future 
prosperity. Fast-track trade authority has been a crucial tool in this 
endeavor in the past, and it will become increasingly important to our 
ability to compete in the future with other countries for new markets, 
new contracts, and new jobs. This traditional trading authority will 
empower us to negotiate pro-growth, pro-American trade agreements that 
will maintain the momentum of our economy and ensure that American 
workers and American businesses can compete on a level playing field 
with the rest of the world.
    America's leadership in building an open, fair world trade system is 
paying off in rewards for entrepreneurial initiative, higher wages for 
working Americans, incentives for technological advances and artistic 
creation, and prosperity for our Nation. By embracing the challenges of 
competing in the global marketplace in the 21st century, we can ensure 
continued growth for American businesses, prosperity for working 
Americans, and a brighter future for us all.

[[Page 884]]

    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 17 
through May 23, 1998, as World Trade Week. I invite 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 fifteenth day 
of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:30 a.m., May 19, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on May 20. 
This item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate 
issue.