NO GROUP of citizens has been called to a higher mission than the one on which you are setting forth today.
The economic health of our own country and that of other friendly nations depends in good measure on the success of your work. Your task is to find acceptable ways and means of widening and deepening the channels of economic intercourse between ourselves and our partners of the free world. It is essential that we help develop new markets for our great productive power and at the same time assist other nations to earn their own living in the world.
Because your inquiry is so basic, you will encounter difficulties-some old and some new. In dealing with them, I commend to you an attitude both realistic and bold. Above all, I urge you to follow one guiding principle: what is best in the national interest.
Note: The Commission on Foreign Economic Policy, consisting of 7 members appointed by the President, 5 members from the Senate appointed by the Vice President, and 5 members from the House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker, was established by title III of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1953 (67 Stat. 473). clarence B. Randall served as Chairman, See also Item 161.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at the First Meeting of the Commission on Foreign Economic Policy. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232034
