State of the Union AddressesKennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald)
History
State of the Union Addresses
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Above all, if we are to pay for our commitments abroad, we must expand our
exports. Our businessmen must be export conscious and export competitive.
Our tax policies must spur modernization of our plants--our wage and price
gains must be consistent with productivity to hold the line on prices--our
export credit and promotion campaigns for American industries must continue
to expand.
But the greatest challenge of all is posed by the growth of the European
Common Market. Assuming the accession of the United Kingdom, there will
arise across the Atlantic a trading partner behind a single external tariff
similar to ours with an economy which nearly equals our own. Will we in
this country adapt our thinking to these new prospects and patterns--or
will we wait until events have passed us by?
This is the year to decide. The Reciprocal Trade Act is expiring. We need a
new law--a wholly new approach--a bold new instrument of American trade
policy. Our decision could well affect the unity of the West, the course of
the Cold War, and the economic growth of our Nation for a generation to
come.
If we move decisively, our factories and farms can increase their sales to
their richest, fastest-growing market. Our exports will increase. Our
balance of payments position will improve. And we will have forged across
the Atlantic a trading partnership with vast resources for freedom.
If, on the other hand, we hang back in deference to local economic
pressures, we will find ourselves cut off from our major allies.
Industries--and I believe this is most vital--industries will move their
plants and jobs and capital inside the walls of the Common Market, and
jobs, therefore, will be lost here in the United States if they cannot
otherwise compete for its consumers. Our farm surpluses--our balance of
trade, as you all know, to Europe, the Common Market, in farm products, is
nearly three or four to one in our favor, amounting to one of the best
earners of dollars in our balance of payments structure, and without
entrance to this Market, without the ability to enter it, our farm
surpluses will pile up in the Middle West, tobacco in the South, and other
commodities, which have gone through Western Europe for 15 years. Our
balance of payments position will worsen. Our consumers will lack a wider
choice of goods at lower prices. And millions of American workers--whose
jobs depend on the sale or the transportation or the distribution of
exports or imports, or whose jobs will be endangered by the movement of our
capital to Europe, or whose jobs can be maintained only in an expanding
economy--these millions of workers in your home States and mine will see
their real interests sacrificed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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