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.

Members of the Congress:  The United States did not rise to greatness by waiting for others to lead.  This Nation is the world’s foremost manufacturer, farmer, banker, consumer, and exporter.  The Common Market is moving ahead at an economic growth rate twice ours.  The Communist economic offensive is under way.  The opportunity is ours—­the initiative is up to us—­and I believe that 1962 is the time.

To seize that initiative, I shall shortly send to the Congress a new five-year Trade Expansion Action, far-reaching in scope but designed with great care to make certain that its benefits to our people far outweigh any risks.  The bill will permit the gradual elimination of tariffs here in the United States and in the Common Market on those items in which we together supply 80 percent of the world’s trade—­mostly items in which our own ability to compete is demonstrated by the fact that we sell abroad, in these items, substantially more than we import.  This step will make it possible for our major industries to compete with their counterparts in Western Europe for access to European consumers.