Special Message to the Congress Concerning the Administration's Program To Promote the Growth of Export Trade.

To the Congress of the United States:

Because increased exports are important to the United States at this time, the Administration has developed a program to promote the growth of our export trade. While most of the public steps to be taken with this end in view can be accomplished under existing legislative authority, the cooperation and support of the Congress are vital to the success of this program.

Expanded exports can add substantially to the millions of jobs already generated for our people by export trade. At the same time, our export surplus contributes significantly to our capacity to sustain our expenditures abroad for investment, private travel, maintenance of United States military forces, and programs of foreign economic cooperation. To support these essential activities, which are reflected in our international balance of payments, we must, as I pointed out in my State of the Union Message, promote a rising volume of exports and world trade.

Unlike the sellers' markets of early post-war years when productive capacity abroad was limited, world markets have recently become highly competitive. To expand exports in these circumstances demands a more vigorous effort by both Government and business to improve our capacity for international competition.

Through the trade agreements program we shall continue to work with other countries toward the removal of unnecessary obstacles to international trade and payments. The discriminatory restrictions that other countries imposed at a time when they had serious balance of payments difficulties have been especially burdensome to our exports. Economic improvement in many countries has removed the justification for such barriers, and with the assistance of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the International Monetary Fund, much has been accomplished in eliminating those restrictions. We shall continue to seek the elimination of the discriminatory restrictions that still remain; we shall also continue to seek the general reduction of quantitative controls.

To assist our exporters to meet current international competition in export financing arrangements, the Export-Import Bank will inaugurate a new program of guarantees of non-commercial risks for short-term export credits. The Bank will also expand and improve its existing credit facilities for medium-term export transactions. These steps, which can be taken under existing statutory authority, should improve the ability of our exporters to compete in world markets. These arrangements will be designed and administered to encourage full participation of commercial banks and other private sources of credit and guarantees.

To help our exporters in the development of their foreign sales, we should improve the numerous Government services now available to business firms and especially useful to our smaller producers. These services have been available all along, but we must infuse them with a new purpose and strengthen them with additional resources. Accordingly, I have directed comprehensive steps

--to strengthen the trade promotion services of the Department of Commerce, including its field offices located throughout the United States,

--to expand and give higher priority to the commercial activities of the Foreign Service,

--to expand the agricultural trade promotion activities of the Department of Agriculture,

--to place greater emphasis on the prompt reporting of information useful to American exporters,

--to establish new overseas trade centers,

--to make fuller use of international trade fairs, trade missions, and other promotional means to stimulate the interest of foreign buyers in United States products while continuing to emphasize the basic objectives of the Special Program for International Understanding, and

--to emphasize the promotion of tourist travel to the United States.

The details of this program will be presented during the Congressional hearings soon to be held on the expansion of United States trade and in connection with a forthcoming request for the supplemental appropriations necessary for rapid progress in the export promotion program. Government promotion, however, can be effective only to the extent that it stimulates and encourages private business efforts to expand sales abroad. Government can help enlarge export opportunities, but it is American business that must supply and sell the goods that world markets demand.

To this end I have asked the Secretary of Commerce in cooperation with other department heads to enlist the efforts of the business community. Consultations have already been held in connection with the preparation of this program. In addition, a group of business leaders will be asked to organize an export drive by business, to enlist the active support of existing national and local business groups, to discover the sectors in which better results can be obtained, to assist and encourage businessmen newly entering the export field, to strengthen contacts with business groups abroad, and to develop an organization structure adequate to these purposes.

The individual steps in this export program are modest ones. Their cumulative effect, however, will be substantial if American enterprise will make the necessary effort. With the support of the Congress, this Government can both facilitate and give continued impetus to the expansion of our exports as free world economic progress continues to enlarge the potential for international trade. The rising tide of productivity and prosperity in many nations creates a timely opportunity for mutual benefits from expanding world trade. By pursuing this opportunity, we can promote vigorous economic growth both at home and abroad.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER