Wilbur Ross, US commerce secretary, left out of G20 activities

Ross has been part of high-level trade talks this year that involved a number of US and Chinese officials

But Trump’s decision to leave Ross back in Washington appears to be another sign of the commerce chief's diminished role in trade negotiations

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Wilbur Ross, left, US commerce secretary, and Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state at the White House this month. Ross is not part of the US contingent at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina this week. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:42am, 1 Dec 2018Updated: 6:21am, 1 Dec 2018

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Doug Palmer on politico.com on November 30, 2018.

The White House has yet to release a list of officials who will accompany US President Donald Trump at the highly anticipated dinner meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping here on Saturday night – but Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is conspicuously absent from the US delegation at the G20 summit.

Trump’s decision to leave Ross back in Washington appears to be another sign of the commerce chief's diminished role in trade negotiations, after he had taken the lead over the trade portfolio early in the administration.

The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for an explanation of why Ross was not at the summit. Politico previously reported that Ross could be part of an expected exodus of Trump Cabinet officials. Ross attended an aerospace industry event in the US on Thursday.

Ross leaves a hotel ahead of trade talks with Chinese officials in Beijing, China, earlier this year. Photo: Reuters

In April 2017 Trump tapped both Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to lead a short-lived Comprehensive Economic Dialogue with Beijing, which collapsed after it failed to produce significant results.