Proclamation 4214—World Trade Week, 1973

We stand today on the threshold of a new era of peace in the world—a time that opens new and ever-widening opportunities for global cooperation which can bring a greater measure of progress and prosperity for the peoples of all nations. One of the most powerful forces for such progress can be the expansion of world trade.

Our advanced industrial technology, our highly efficient agricultural system, and our increasingly productive labor force have combined to make America the world's largest exporter of all countries in the world. In the process we have also become the world's largest marketing country for the products of other countries.

History clearly demonstrates that trade creates more and better-paying jobs for American workers, a wider choice of products for American consumers, enhanced opportunities for the creative and competitive skills of American business, and a higher standard of living for all Americans.

But we also know that expanded trade must be achieved within the context of an international economic system which is fair to all participants. For this reason the United States proposed major reforms in the international monetary field in 1972; marked progress toward their adoption is presently being made. For this same reason, I have recently submitted to the Congress the Trade Reform Act of 1973. Its enactment will enable the United States to enter the international trade negotiations later this year with the tools we need to achieve fair reductions in trade barriers, to help build a new international economic order and to advance our interests within it.

Under such legislation, the United States can continue to work with other nations in building a fair and open trading world.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning May 20, 1973, as World Trade Week, and I call upon all Americans to cooperate in observing that week by participating with the business community and all levels of Government in activities that emphasize the importance of world trade to the United States economy and to our relations with other nations.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

RICHARD NIXON