World Trade Week, 2014

Proclamation 9128 of May 16, 2014

World Trade Week, 2014

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Commercial ties build partnerships between nations and
spur growth across the world. Here in America, trade
bolsters our small businesses, which make up 98 percent
of our exporters and create nearly two out of every
three new jobs. During World Trade Week, we celebrate
these benefits, and we redouble our efforts to promote
trade while protecting workers, safeguarding the
environment, and opening markets to new goods stamped,
``Made in the USA.''

My Administration is dedicated to supporting high-
quality American jobs through exports. In 2010, I
launched the National Export Initiative (NEI), and
since then our determined focus on exports has helped
more American small and medium-sized businesses and
farmers create jobs by selling their products abroad.
We are now selling more American goods and services
overseas than at any time in our history. Last year
alone, our exports supported 11.3 million American
jobs.

Earlier this month, my Administration renewed its
commitment to creating American jobs by launching a new
phase of the National Export Initiative, NEI/NEXT. This
new phase will build on the NEI's success by helping
companies find export opportunities, gain access to
financing, and move their goods across borders. NEI/
NEXT will also open markets around the world while
ensuring a level playing field for American companies.
My Administration is also helping American companies
strengthen their global competitiveness by investing in
cutting-edge manufacturing techniques. Over the past 4
years, factories that once went dark have turned on
their lights again, and the United States has seen the
first sustained growth in manufacturing jobs in over
two decades.

As we ensure the next technological revolution is
American-made, we must also create new opportunities to
sell our goods throughout the world. Alongside our
partners in the Asia-Pacific, we are working to
complete negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
which will lower barriers to trade, create jobs in
America and across the Pacific, and open up markets to
our exports in the world's fastest-growing region. And
to grow prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, we
launched negotiations with the European Union on a
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

America's economic strength is a source of strength in
the world. As our global economy evolves, as countries
forge ever-stronger links, the United States must not
stand on the sidelines. If we do not shirk from this
challenge, if we continue to embrace the grit and
innovative spirit that has always defined our Nation, I
am confident America's best days lie ahead.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, 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 May 18 through May
24, 2014, as World Trade Week. I encourage all
Americans to observe this week with events, trade
shows, and educational programs that celebrate and
inform Americans about the benefits of trade to our
Nation and the global economy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
eighth.