Proclamation 4265—National Port Week, 1974

In providing services to promote the expansion of United States exports, our commercial ocean and inland ports play a central role in improving our balance of trade. The building of World Trade Centers in several ports and the establishment of trade promotion offices in major manufacturing areas are among the methods employed by United States ports to encourage export expansion.

Over 1.6 billion tons of commerce in our foreign and domestic waterborne trades moved through our port gateways in 1972. The foreign portion of this total was valued at more than $47 billion. The many and varied port handling activities required to service this vast trade volume alone generate about $30 billion in direct dollar income to local and regional economies served by United States ports. This amount serves to stimulate an even greater economic chain of indirect revenues as these dollars are spent throughout the national economy.

Other statistics also help to demonstrate the central role of port facilities in the American economy. Public and private port interests have invested over $5 billion in cargo handling facilities since the end of World War II. Port-generated activities now provide employment for well over 1.2 million people—accounting for about $12 billion in wages each year. A total of over $32 billion a year is being poured into the American economy directly and indirectly by waterfront activities in our national port system.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, in order to remind Americans of the importance of the port industry of the United States to our national life, do hereby designate the week beginning on the last Sunday in September as National Port Week. I ask that public attention be directed to the important role our Nation's ports play in the American economy through appropriate activities and ceremonies. I also ask that all ships in United States ports during that week dress ship in tribute to our port industry.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-eighth.

RICHARD NIXON