Ross expected to get easy US Senate nod
The 79-year-old billionaire investor was tipped to be easily confirmed as US Commerce Secretary
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross was expected to be easily confirmed as US. Commerce Secretary yesterday, clearing President Donald Trump’s top trade official to start work on renegotiating trade relationships with China and Mexico.
The vote will insert a new voice into Trump’s economic team, one that strongly influenced his criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement and a now-scrapped Asia-Pacific trade deal.
Ross’ nomination was scheduled for a vote yesterday at around 7pm (0000 GMT). It was advanced by the Senate in a 66-31 procedural vote on February 17, signalling solid support from Democrats.
Praise for Ross
Part of that support stems from praise that Ross has drawn from the United Steelworkers union for his efforts in restructuring several bankrupt steel companies in the early 2000s, saving numerous plants and thousands of jobs.
But he also has come under criticism from some left-wing groups as another billionaire in a Trump cabinet that claims to be focused on the working class, and for being a “vulture” investor who has eliminated jobs. Reuters reported last month that Ross’s companies have shipped some 2,700 jobs overseas since 2004.
The 79-year-old investor will oversee a sprawling agency with nearly 44,000 employees responsible for combating the dumping of imports below cost into US markets, collecting census and critical economic data, weather forecasting, fisheries management, promoting the United States to foreign investors and regulating the export of sensitive technologies.
Ross is expected to play an outsize role in pursuing Trump’s campaign pledge to slash US trade deficits and bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Trump has designated Ross to lead the renegotiation of NAFTA with Mexico and Canada, a job that in past administrations would have been left to the US Trade Representative’s office.