Reagan seeks department to link commerce, trade

President Reagan asked Congress to replace the Commerce Department with a new Department of International Trade and Industry and scatter its nontrade functions throughout the government.

The jobs of commerce secretary and US trade representative, currently held by Malcolm Baldrige and William Brock, would be consolidated in the new Cabinet post. The shift would bring trade policy functions now carried out by the Commerce Department and trade negotiations now carried out by Mr. Brock's office into the same bureaucratic domain.