950805

Congress urged to

keep Commerce Dept

WASHINGTON: Two senior U.S. officials told Congress that dismantling the Commerce Department and creating a new trade office would cripple American efforts to sell goods overseas and create jobs at home.

Commerce Secretary Ron Brown urged keeping the status quo because the department he heads is effectively promoting U.S. exports. U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor also argued for keeping the Commerce Department intact.

But their remarks were cooly received from the majority Republicans on the House International Relations Committee, many of whom seemed ready to go ahead with the dismantling.

Several bills proposed by Republicans would abolish the Commerce department, ending some of its functions whlie shifting some to other agencies and creating a new office of international trade.

Brown said "Box shuffling is not going to make government better and it is not going to save money."

Kantor said that as global competition increases, "We should strengthen, rather an dismantle the institutions that have successfully and effectively advanced our economic interests."

Brown said Commerce a focused effort to aid business. He said he would gladly work with Congress to improve it, but "With respect to our trade apparatus, we believe it is working well." Kantor warned that a single agency could pose problems.

He said a conflict could arise where the trade officer was conducting tough negotiations at the same time the Commerce Department was promoting sales of goods to that same country.

Kantor said "USTR's work is to open foreign markets and provide opportunities for American exporters, while the Commerce Department and other agencies help American workers and firms make the most of those opporunities."

But committee chairman Benjamin Gilman, a New York Republican, warned Brown and Kantor that "the elimination of the Commerce Department is a high priority."

Dick Chrysler, a Michigan Republican who has authored one of the dismantling bills said called Commerce "the government's attic," adding "It doesn't make sense and it doesn't have to be that way."-Reuter