PROCLAMATION 7098—MAY 21, 1998 112 STAT. 3757 services, to open new markets, and to keep them open. This week, I will travel to Geneva, Switzerland and address the World Trade Organization to underline just how important free and open trade is to our future prosperity. Fast-track trade authority has been a crucial tool in this endeavor in the past, and it will become increasingly important to our ability to compete in the future with other countries for new markets, new contracts, and new jobs. This traditional trading authority wdll empower us to negotiate pro-grovyrth, pro-American trade agreements that vyrill maintain the momentum of our economy and ensure that American workers and American businesses can compete on a level playing field with the rest of the world. America's leadership in building an open, fair world trade system is paying off in rewards for entrepreneurial initiative, higher wages for working Americans, incentives for technological advances and artistic creation, and prosperity for our Nation. By embracing the challenges of competing in the global marketplace in the 21st century, we can ensure continued growth for American businesses, prosperity for working Americans, and a brighter future for us all. 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 laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 17 through May 23, 1998, as World Trade Week. I invite the people of the United States to observe this week with ceremonies, activities, and programs that celebrate the potential of international trade. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-second. WILLIAM J. CLINTON Proclamation 7098 of May 21, 1998 National Maritime Day, 1998 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation The United States is and has always been a maritime Nation. Our history is tied to the sea—from the Santa Maria to the Mayflower, from clipper ships to ocean liners, from the Liberty Ships of World War II to the huge, efficient containerships of the 1990s—and our development as a Nation has paralleled the growth of our waterborne commerce. As we look forward to the challenges of the 21st century, we continue to rely on our Nation's maritime industry and the U.S. Merchant Marine to keep America competitive in an increasingly global economy. Ships and barges carry more than one billion tons of commercial cargo annually between ports within our Nation. Internationaly, more than 95 percent of our imports and exports by weight are transported on water—a total of more than one billion metric tons of cargo each year.
�
