Proclamation 4278—World Trade Week, 1974

As we approach the midpoint of the nineteen seventies there are many problems which command the attention of the world's peoples.

Large and small, nations around the globe seek solutions to unprecedented problems of energy. How we and they react could have a lasting impact on international commercial relations. Moreover, the need for thoroughgoing reform of the international economic system has never been more acute.

The challenges are thus great, but the opportunities are even greater.

To meet those challenges and realize these opportunities, we need to move rapidly and confidently forward with a series of interrelated negotiations, of which those on trade reform are of vital importance.

World trade is important not only to the United States but to all nations. Fair open trade can contribute importantly to stability and harmony in the world, reducing the causes of international friction.

World Trade Week is an opportunity to recall this importance to all Americans and to renew our sense of national dedication to the success of this effort.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning May 19, 1974, 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 twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-eighth.

RICHARD NIXON