Obama plans a united front for US exporters

US President Barack Obama plans to consolidate the various trade agencies in the country to a single export agency, which is better focused and better equipped to do business overseas.

Obama said he wanted to merge the office of the US Trade Representative and five other export bodies working out of Washington into a new trade department, so that business and trade can have a single point of contact at any given time.

Under the proposed merger, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is now a part of the commerce department, will be absorbed by the department of the interior while the census bureau and other statistical agencies would be moved to a new department. The commerce department would then cease to exist.

The president said he wanted to untangle the complex bureaucratic web of the US government, which, he said, has curtailed US businesses' ability to sell their goods abroad.

Obama said the consolidation of the six trade and business agencies into a single export body would help the United States better compete in a 21st century economy while also modernising a government that had grown too complex.

The overhaul would make it easier for US businesses to interact with the US government and boost their overseas sales, he said in a speech delivered at the White House.