Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, pictured speaking in 2011, is said to be the leading candidate for Commerce Secretary. | AP Photo Billionaire investor Ross said to be Commerce pick

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross is President-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate for Commerce Secretary, multiple sources told POLITICO.

Ross, 78, is the founder of the private equity firm WL Ross & Co., known for restructuring failed companies, and he's an economic adviser to Trump.


Carl Icahn appeared to confirm the news that Ross is the leading candidate for Commerce Tuesday, tweeting, "Spoke to @realDonaldTrump. Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross are being considered for Treasury and Commerce. Both would be great choices."

Ross has been a vociferous critic of trade deals negotiated over the last 25 years, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has vowed to leave unless Mexico and Canada agree to renegotiate on more favorable terms.

“I think there’s a big difference between the impact of trade agreements on corporate America and the impact on Mr. and Mrs. America,” Ross told CNBC in an interview earlier this year. “Corporate America has adjusted to them by investing lots of capital offshore. … What we’re doing is we’re exporting jobs and importing products, instead of exporting products and keeping jobs.”

Along with fellow Trump campaign adviser Peter Navarro, an University of California-Irvine economics and public policy professor, Ross has called for future trade deals to include automatic renegotiation triggers if trade gains “are not distributed fairly” and other “safeguards” including ironclad sanctions against currency manipulation, zero tolerance on intellectual property theft and stringent environmental and health and safety standards.

“He’s not the first rich old white guy to hold the job,” said Bill Reinsch, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Institute. “Some of them were pretty good — [Ronald Reagan’s Commerce Secretary Malcolm] Baldrige for example. I don't know Ross, but he certainly seems qualified.”

“During the campaign, Mr. Ross was a vocal supporter of the Trump economic plan,” said Scott Miller, a trade policy specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “That said, I have no idea why someone that wealthy and independent would want to be the Commerce secretary.”

The Commerce secretary oversees the administration of U.S. trade remedy laws designed to keep out unfairly-traded imports, giving that person a major role in fulfilling Trump’s promise of a more confrontational stance against China, which is already the focus of most U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duty actions.

The Commerce secretary manages a huge government bureaucracy, including disparate agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Minority Business Development Agency.

If he is nominated, Ross is also likely to face new questioning related to the January, 2006 Sago mine disaster in Sago, W.Va., which killed a dozen workers. The mine was owned by a subsidiary of one of his companies, International Coal Group, Inc. Ross faced findings that he ignored dozens of safety concerns and citations.

Federal investigators pointed to a lightning strike as the "most likely" ignition source for the blast but said that proper methane monitoring, among other things, could have prevented the disaster. The federal Mine Safety and Health Commission imposed fines of $134,000, which were later reduced.

A spokesman for Trump's presidential transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated Ross' affiliation with International Textile Group. He no longer owns it.