Senate Confirms Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary
February 27 2017 - 8:15PM
Dow Jones News
By William Mauldin
WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday confirmed Wilbur Ross as
Commerce secretary, an appointment key to enabling President Donald
Trump to make progress on a campaign promise to overhaul U.S. trade
policy.
The vote was 72-27, with those opposing Mr. Ross questioning his
foreign investments. Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) told his
colleagues Monday that Ross "has taken advantage of the very bad
trade deals that this body has passed in order to offshore
thousands of U.S. jobs."
But supporters argued that Mr. Ross's business experiences will
position him to help promote the interests of American companies
and their workers.
"Mr. Ross's business know-how and intelligence make him an
excellent candidate to serve as the next secretary of commerce,"
said Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce
Committee.
Mr. Trump's path to the White House was driven in part 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 shift 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 impose punitive tariffs
if they are found to be dumping products below fair value on the
U.S. market, or enjoying 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 years old, 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, would 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 insisted Mexico pay for a border wall.
Top trade officials weren't a part of the meetings 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 to fellow business leaders on Mr. Trump's team, including Mr.
Tillerson, a former 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 appears cut from a different cloth.
Mr. Ross has said he would at the Commerce Department initiate more
government-led cases against trading partners, which could spur
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 20:00 ET (01:00 GMT)
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