Proclamation 5482—World Trade Week, 1986

Each year, World Trade Week provides an opportunity to celebrate the importance of international trade to our present prosperity and our future prospects. Indeed, it benefits us and all the nations with whom we do business.

American business initiative and ingenuity have never stopped at our borders. Since the birth of our Nation, we have been a dynamic force in international trade. That trade has helped us build the most productive economy in the history of mankind.

Today, America's prosperity depends as never before on our ability to compete in international markets. Our exports make a major contribution to domestic growth and employment. The United States is today the world's leading exporter. We export nearly 16 percent more goods to the world than our nearest competitor, yet we export far less of our total production than many other trading nations. We need to increase our exports to further strengthen our economy.

American companies need the same free and fair access to foreign markets that the United States offers to its trading partners. My Administration has stepped up its efforts to counter unfair trade practices and to open foreign markets that have raised barriers to American products. We will continue to do so.

Today, we are preparing for a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. Through those negotiations we will continue to press for open markets for the products of our manufacturing firms. We will also press for greater market access for the products of America's farms and the products of our fast-growing service industries.

In multilateral negotiations, and at home, we will continue to resist proposals for protectionist measures for the simple reason, proved by history and bitter experience, that they just do not work.

Export expansion also requires a sound, stable dollar and reliable exchange rates around the world. We have already achieved a great deal through our efforts to coordinate economic and monetary policies with our major trading partners. Upward revaluations of foreign currencies against the dollar are making American products more competitive around the world. We are continuing our policy discussions with America's major trading partners to enhance America's trading opportunities.

Government can only set the stage for increased trading. It is the job of American private enterprise to make trade grow. Over the past year, government actions have vastly improved the climate for trade. Aggressive exporters in our business community are calling today's trading climate an opportunity for a "renaissance in American competitiveness." Translating that golden opportunity into a reality depends upon all of America's businesses.

Given fair competitive conditions, American industry and labor can and will meet this challenge with renewed determination-reaching out to fulfill our potential as a great exporting nation.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week beginning May 18, 1986, as World Trade Week. I invite the people of the United States to join in appropriate observances to reaffirm the enormous potential of international trade for creating jobs and stimulating economic activity here while it helps to generate prosperity for all.

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

RONALD REAGAN