Senate Poised to Confirm Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary
February 27 2017 - 5:59AM
Dow Jones News
By William Mauldin
WASHINGTON -- The Senate is expected to confirm Wilbur Ross as
Commerce secretary Monday, an appointment key to allowing President
Donald Trump to make progress on his campaign promise to overhaul
U.S. trade policy.
Mr. Trump rode a wave of economic discontent to the White House
driven partly by his message that existing trade deals don't help
American workers. He has pledged to renegotiate or pull the U.S.
out of the North American Free Trade Agreement and warned that he
would take steps to restrict imports from China and other trading
partners he says engage in unfair practices.
Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the unratified Trans-Pacific
Partnership on his first full working day, signaling a sharp
departure from Barack Obama's policy of multilateral engagement and
trade liberalization.
Mr. Ross, a billionaire investor, is set to play a leading role
in setting trade policy and negotiating deals. The Commerce
Department handles cases that allow U.S. industries or the federal
government to challenge overseas rivals and to impose punitive
tariffs if they're found to be dumping products below fair value on
the American market, or benefiting from improper subsidies.
In his first five weeks in office. Mr. Trump's ability to
immediately initiate talks with trading partners or open a deep
dialogue about trade on Capitol Hill has been hobbled by the lack
of a confirmed Commerce secretary or U.S. trade representative.
Working with lawmakers on trade will be critical if the Trump team
wants to get expedited approval for any deals it negotiates.
Earlier this month, Peter Navarro, the head of Mr. Trump's new
National Trade Council, took the lead in briefing Congress, and
some senators raised concerns about the Trump team's approach.
Key committees in Congress have in the past preferred to work
with the U.S. trade representative, a post that has statutory
authority to take the lead on developing, coordinating and
implementing policy. Mr. Trump's pick for trade representative,
Washington lawyer Robert Lighthizer, has faced delays over
paperwork and questions about his work with foreign governments
decades ago, congressional aides say.
Mr. Ross, 79, faced questions during his confirmation process
about potential conflicts of interest from his web of investments
around the world. He has said he would sell at least 80 business
assets and investment funds if confirmed, but he plans to retain
some holdings, including an investment made alongside the Chinese
government in an oil-tanker operator.
His confirmation, and that of Mr. Lighthizer, will boost Mr.
Trump's ability to begin in earnest a process he had hoped to
initiate much sooner.
Mr. Trump has said he would start negotiations on a new Nafta
deal in his first 100 days, a goal that now appears impossible
since the 2015 fast-track trade law requires the president to give
Congress a 90-day notice before formal negotiations begin.
A Washington meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
was canceled after Mr. Trump's insisted that Mexico pay for a
border wall. Top trade officials weren't a part of the meetings
that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held with Mexican officials
last week.
Canada also doesn't appear eager to jump into negotiations
without knowing what the Trump administration is bringing to the
table.
"It's important for people not to get ahead of themselves,"
Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said last week in
Toronto. "The U.S. administration needs to have a long domestic
consultation period."
Some U.S. business leaders who back traditional trade
liberalization have said Mr. Trump may soften his approach as
president, avoiding broad tariffs and potential trade wars. They
point toward fellow business leaders on Mr. Trump's team, including
Mr. Tillerson, the once longtime chief executive of Exxon Mobil
Corp., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former investor who
spent years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
But Mr. Trump's trade team is clearly cut from a different
cloth, and Mr. Ross has vowed to initiate more government-led cases
against trading partners at the Commerce Department, a move that
could generate retaliation against U.S. exports.
Messrs. Ross and Lighthizer will likely have firm support in the
White House, especially from Messrs. Trump and Navarro. On
Thursday, senior adviser Steve Bannon hailed the arrival of
"economic nationalism" in Washington and called Mr. Trump's quick
move to withdraw from the TPP "one of the pivotal moments in modern
American history."
--David George-Cosh in Toronto contributed to this article.
Write to William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 27, 2017 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
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