Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 101 Part 3.djvu/781

 PROCLAMATION 5611—FEB. 19, 1987

101 STAT. 2079

(b] by deleting "Polish People's Republic" from the list of countries therein. 3. This Proclamation shall take effect with respect to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after the date of publication of this Proclamation in the Federal Register. ^ IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 19th day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh. RONALD REAGAN > Editorial note: Printed in the Federal Register of Feb. 23, 1987.

Proclamation 5611 of February 19, 1987

National Consumers Week, 1987 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation In the bicentennial year of the Constitution of the United States, it is appropriate that we reflect on the cherished freedoms and rights on which our open marketplace is founded. In recognition of the importance of the Constitution to American consumers in assuring us the many blessings we enjoy today, the theme for National Consumers Week 1987 shall be "Consumers Celebrate the Constitution." Two hundred years ago, a group of patriots conceived thereby created the political, economic, and social Nation. As a result, many precious freedoms have American citizens. Inherent in these is the freedom to to buy or not to buy.

the Constitution and framework for our been guaranteed to produce, to sell, and

Our competitive marketplace has flourished and become the most productive in the world, providing American consumers with unparalleled choices and opportunities. The goal of the Constitution's framers was to provide a free market in goods and services marked by creativity, by invention, and by the productivity of American workers. We can be thankful today for the wisdom of our Founders. A functioning national market for goods and services with common money, standard weights and measures, reliable legal procedures respecting honest contracts, freedom from oppressive taxation, the encouragement of invention, and a dependable postal system were commonly recognized as needs in the debates of the Constitutional Convention. The resulting document, signed in Philadelphia in 1787, so effectively addressed those concerns that the same principles guide our modern economy. These principles of freedom and fairness are the basis for consumer rights in the marketplace: the right to choose among products, services, and suppliers; the right to adequate information about what we buy; the right to

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