New Delhi: The government is planning to revamp the Commerce department which will have a more coherent trade promotion strategy with clear targets and execution accountabilities, an official statement said on Sunday.

Under the plan, there is a proposal to set up a dedicated trade promotion body and a trade remedies review committee.

The Commerce Ministry also said that there will be a strengthened negotiation ecosystem with the right expertise and robust end-to-end processes with clearly defined focus areas and institutions in the revamped department.

"It aspires to achieve an optimal mix of talent with specialists and generalists sourced from across private and government sectors. The department will have an agile set-up responsive to market opportunities and exporter needs via interlinkages across bodies. There will also be synergised branding for India across all domains highlighting clear priority areas," the ministry said.

It added that the revamping is aimed at further building on its strategic direction and aspirations for the next decade. There is also a need for scaling up and re-engineering the operation model with enhanced 'new-age' capabilities and to move from inherent traditional roles to new roles, it said.

For this, a project was undertaken to design a future-ready department of commerce. A dedicated 'Trade Promotion Body' to drive overall promotion strategy, export targets, and execution is proposed to be set up and a stronger active role for missions in trade promotion for market intelligence, leads generation and localized research has been envisaged, it said.

"Strengthening negotiations via multi-skilled negotiation teams and separation between bilateral and WTO (World Trade Organisation) negotiations has been envisioned," it said.

It has also been proposed to set up a "Trade Remedies Review Committee' including the ministry of commerce and industry, ministry of finance, and line ministries for transparency in investigations outcomes.

Further centralization and digitization of trade facilitation processes have been recommended to drive cases of compliance and scheme administration.
Source- PTI