 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. I thought I'd get here before you started to melt about it. Come, Jim didn't come in. He's in there. Good morning, Mr. President. Well, good morning. Thank you very much. Thank you all, please. It's an honor. Secretary Baldrige, Ambassador Yeider, and Secretary Ling. Good morning to all of you. It's a great pleasure to have all of you here, not only to celebrate World Trade Week, but to celebrate you, the men and women, at the cutting edge of American competitiveness. One of America's greatest assets is the skill and professionalism of its business men and women and entrepreneurs. The can-do spirit of our business community is in stark contrast to the inefficiency of poor performance often associated with other economic systems. Of course, mistakes do happen. You know the story of the fellow who ordered a bouquet of flowers to be sent to the opening of his friend's new branch office. When he got there, he was shocked to see flowers with the inscription, rest in peace. He was so outraged that on the way home, he stopped at the florist to complain. And the florist said, just think of it this way. The day someone in the city was buried the flower arrangement with the inscription, good luck in your new location. But it is truly wonderful to have you here. Export leaders like you are living proof that we can compete in world markets. The latest trade statistics, which were released last Thursday, clearly show that things are improving and we're on the right path. Our overall trade deficit declined in March, closing out the third consecutive quarter with a substantial decline. The data on the actual trade volume, the physical amount of goods we import and export, suggests that we will continue to see these kinds of improvements in the months ahead. More important, exports rose by $3.6 billion to the highest level since March of 1981. Now, I've said all along the solution to our trade deficit is to export more, not import less, by closing our borders. I recognize that the substantial improvement in exports is due to people like you. You demonstrate that the American entrepreneurial spirit is still a guiding spirit of the world economy, just as the American economic recovery of the 1980s has been the energizing force of world growth. That recovery wasn't brought on by raising taxes. It wasn't brought on by protectionism, trade barriers, and quotas, which is simply another form of taxes. Our economic renaissance was brought on because we cut tax rates and keep cutting them. We slashed unnecessary and counterproductive regulations and held back the destructionist threat to world trade while aggressively working the open markets abroad. If you want to see how strong our expansion is, you just have to look at the numbers and the numbers that really count. Unemployment just took another dive to 6.2%, the lowest level since the start of the decade. 315,000 jobs were created last month alone, even more than the already impressive average of 257,000 jobs a month that we've been creating since this expansion began. All together, that's 13.6 million new jobs. And a full 60% of those are in high-paying occupations such as managerial, professional, and technical, so much for the so-called declining middle class. Since 1982, manufacturing productivity is shooting ahead at the fastest pace in 20 years and output has soared almost 30%. In the last four years, we've added more manufacturing jobs than either Europe or Japan, so much for deindustrialization. Venture capital is back in the upswing, presaging another boom on top of a boom of American inventiveness and entrepreneurial growth. In other words, what Europe has called the American miracle just gets more miraculous as our expansion continues. There's a major danger on the horizon, one specter looming over all those millions of new jobs, threatening to wipe them out as fast as we created them. I'm talking about the destructionist threat. Some call it protectionism. But we saw in the 1930s with the Smoot-Hawley bill what that kind of thinking produces, industrial collapse, ballooning unemployment, and economic misery. At the same time, we're working aggressively to close open, I should say, closed markets abroad, and we've been more aggressive than any administration in history, insisting on free and fair trade practices with our foreign trading partners. Right now, in our competitive legislation, we're proposing calls for renewed authority to negotiate with our trading partners reduced trade barriers and tougher sanctions against unfair trade practices, antitrust reform, strengthening the Export Trading Company program, amending the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, product liability reform, intellectual property protection, strengthening U.S. trade laws to reduce trade barriers, to create fair opportunities abroad, and export control reform. But we'll continue to oppose any legislation that threatens to plunge us back into the despair of the 1930s. I'm not going to let political grandstanding destroy millions of American jobs. I renew my promise today. Any protectionist legislation that comes across my desk is going to get a big fat VETO written right across it. When our tax reform package is fully in place and all Americans have received the tax rate cuts they've been promised, then America will have the newest, sleekest, most competitive tax system in the world. Together with dynamos like you, leading American industry to conquer markets abroad, I have no doubt that the American miracle has just begun. And now it's time to hand out those E-Awards. Mr. President, we may will start with the E-Awards. The first recipient is the American Hardware Manufacturers Association, Schomburg, Illinois, accepting the award as William P. Farrell, President and Chief Executive Officer. Our second awardee is Applied Communications Company, Incorporated, of Omaha, Nebraska, accepting the award as Neil Hansen President. Mr. President, Omaha has one of the finest songs written about it of any city I know of, and someday Mr. Hansen and I will come in and sing it to you. I was born there, too. Next is Atlanta Saw Company, Atlanta, Georgia, accepting the award as Eugene Anderson, Chairman of the Board. Bruce Foods Corporation of New Iberia, Louisiana, is next, accepting the award as J.S. Cy Brown, the third President. FR Manufacturing Company, Franrica of Stockton, California, accepting the award as Clarence Dreyer. Galtech Corporation of Chaska, Minnesota, accepting the award as Victor Walsstad, owner and founder. ITC Enterprises, limited of Baltimore, Maryland, accepting the award as Peter Osterkreis, President. Port of Olympia of Olympia, Washington, accepting the award as Ray Dinsmore, President of the Board of Commissioners. And now we'll present the E-Star Awards for continued excellence in export promotion. The first E-Star recipient is Black Box Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, accepting the award as Jean Yost, the President. Next is Graham Magnetics, Incorporated, of North Richlands Hills, Texas, C.Crosby, President. And finally, the Lamb Electric Division Amatek, of Kent, Ohio, accepting the award as Frank Fenton, General Manager. And I have an announcement here that I would like to make that is aimed directly at you of the press. I know and I share the sense of concern and anger that Americans feel over yesterday's tragedy in the Persian Gulf. We have protested this attack in the strongest terms and are investigating the circumstances of the incident. When our investigation of the facts is completed, I will report to the American people about this matter and any further steps that are warranted. For that reason, I have convened a meeting of the National Security Planning Group to review the entire situation in the Persian Gulf. And meanwhile, I want to express my deepest sympathies to the families of the brave men killed and injured yesterday aboard the USS Stark. Their loss and suffering will not be in vain. The mission of the men of the USS Stark, safeguarding the interests of the United States and the free world in the Gulf, remains crucial to our national security and to the security of our friends throughout the world. The hazards to our men and women in uniform and the defense of freedom can never be understated. The officers and crew of the USS Stark deserve our highest admiration and appreciation. And I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for their prompt assistance in responding to the stricken USS Stark. This tragic incident underscores the need to bring the Iran-Iraq war to the promptest possible end. We and the rest of the international community must redouble our diplomatic efforts to hasten a settlement that will preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both Iran and Iraq. At the same time, we remain deeply committed to supporting the self-defense of our friends in the Gulf and to ensuring the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Thank you all for pointing out what that would be.