107 STAT. 2662 PROCLAMATION 6563—MAY 19, 1993 industrial competitiveness of the United States and assuring us of an edge in world markets. Creating a climate for American exports requires not only a strong domestic economy, but also free and fair access for U.S. products to markets abroad. This Administration, therefore, is building a trade agenda that will allow U.S. exports to compete on a level playing field with our trading partners. A top trade-related priority is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which will link the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a single market of 360 million consimiers cvurently spending $6 trillion annually. Mexico, once economically isolated from the United States, has emerged as our Nation's third largest trading partner. With supplemental agreements to address environmental and labor issues, NAFTA will be a positive force for creating American jobs. In addition to our focus on the NAFTA negotiations, this Administration is determined to complete the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Roimd agreement. GATT is an agreement binding more than 100 nations to a mutual interest in strengthening the global environment for trade. As part of these negotiations, this Administration is seeking provisions that ensure free and fair trade for American industry, as well as effective bilateral dispute settlement mecha- \ nisms. A successful Uruguay Round would lower tariff and nontariff \ barriers to manufactured products and other commodities, thereby in- \ creasing cuMiulative world output by more than $5 trillion and cumu- \ lative U.S. output by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. While advancing our Nation's interests through the GATT negotiations, the United States and other countries must provide financial assistance to ensure key political and economic reforms in Russia and the former Soviet republics. By carefully targeting this assistance, our Nation will not only encoiurage progress toward global stability, arms control, and nonproliferation, but also help create an environment in which trade with that region can flourish. Creating a secure and prosperous global environment for trade also hinges on continued U.S. efforts to benefit from the great opportunities that are available in the high-growth East Asian and Latin American markets, two of the fastest growing regions for American exports. Although thousands of U.S. companies continue to boost their profit V margins through exports, thousands of other American firms have yet to market their goods abroad. In fact, just 15 percent of American companies account for 85 percent of our Nation's exports. With U.S. merchandise exports totaling more than $448 billion in 1992, "World Trade Week" reminds us of the meffectivernational commerce and the vast export opportunities yet to be explored by American business. NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, 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 16, 1993, as World Trade Week. I invite the people of the United States to join in appropriate observances to reaffirm the potential of international trade for creating prosperity for all. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereimto set my hand this nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three.
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