Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks to the Cabinet Committee on Export Expansion.

April 07, 1964

Secretary Hodges, members of the Cabinet, ladies and gentlemen:

I guess once a businessman, always a businessman. Luther is one of the great prides and products of our free enterprise system, but I did not say we had everything straightened out last Saturday. And don't ever mistake a temporary recognition of a partial job well done, for anything like you said.

I made the statement that I had been informed, I hope reliably, that our exports are going at a rate of about $7 billion a year--that was the balance in our favor; that I interpreted that as something that we could take some pride in; that I did not anticipate that that would necessarily be a permanent situation, but it is a very fine thing to observe.

I should like to commend all those who have, along with the Secretary of Commerce, been engaged in this mission to expand the exports of the United States. I think there are few tasks that are more important, or closer to my own concerns for the future of this country.

An increase in our overseas trade, as all of us are aware, brings great benefits to every single sector of our American life. They benefit business by providing increased markets for our production. It will benefit the strength of the dollar by improving our balance of payments and because I observed, Mr. Secretary, that our balance of payments for the first quarter, not necessarily the last quarter, look good, that didn't mean that I underwrote everything that might happen during your tenure of office.

It will benefit labor and help in the war against poverty, since every billion dollars by which we increase exports one hundred thousand new jobs will be created. It will increase our world responsibilities by establishing closer commercial relations with the industrialized countries and providing for the developing world the trade which can make them flourish and progress. That is why I am so happy to see so many of the various departments and agencies of Government interested in this particular field here this morning.

Through much of our history we have spent most of our effort on expanding and satisfying the vigorous domestic market. We have concentrated our production, our salesmanship, and our trade on a vast common market which spans the continent and embraces two hundred million people. Our success in doing this has raised us to our present high level of prosperity here at home. But the very opportunities which this market provided often left us to neglect the opportunities for trade abroad, and neglected them we have.

Other countries, forced to trade in order to survive, did develop sharper tools, more sophisticated techniques for penetrating other markets. Our own share of the world trade has not been proportional to our capacity to produce goods that are needed and wanted by other lands. At this point in our own history, in world history, we can no longer afford to neglect opportunities for overseas trade. We cannot let those opportunities pass for lack of effort, for lack of knowledge, or for lack of appropriate Government assistance. The prosperity of Europe and Japan, which we helped create, means not only larger markets for our goods, but sharply increased competition for world markets.

The rise of new nations in the developing world offers a large prospect for increased commerce and it has placed on us a national responsibility to provide a solid commercial basis for their development and their stability. Our commitment to the defense of freedom around the world means that exports must substantially exceed imports, if we are to keep our currency sound, as we intend to do. I took a great deal of pride last Saturday in making that observation and I hope that we can take the example we have set and continue that very fine pace.

We have the same productive genius and ingenuity which built this Nation. So let us now apply those same qualities that we have applied here at home to increasing commerce with the world. Last September at the White House Conference three hundred businessmen met and discussed problems and framed recommendations. This Committee has now been established to act on these recommendations and to press forward the export drive on every front. Such action is imperative.

I await your decisions; I await your actions. I have designated Mr. Goldy, who has just been sworn in, as the National Export Expansion Coordinator. He will help assure that the decisions of this committee are implemented through the Government in order that we miss no opportunity to increase export trade. He has my highest confidence. If your efforts are successful, as I hope they will be, and as I would like to encourage them to be, future generations will recognize what you have accomplished as one of the great cornerstones of our national strength and the well-being of our people.

I know of no subject that intensely interests me more. I know of nothing that I will be prouder of than to see the record that you ring up. I hope that you can continue the very fine balance that now exists and expand it in the days to come. I thank each agency represented here and each person who is participating in this meeting. Any encouragement I can give you, I want to do. Any help that I can extend, I want to do.

I congratulate the Secretary for the leadership he has taken in this field and say to the Secretary of Commerce, I hope when I have another Saturday news conference that I can increase that $7 billion figure and that I can have as optimistic a report next quarter on balance of payments as I did this quarter.

Note: The President spoke in the fish Room at 11:30 a.m. In his opening words he referred to Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to the Cabinet Committee on Export Expansion. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239452

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