Investor Wilbur Ross expected to be offered commerce secretary job by Trump

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross looks set to be offered a job in Donald Trump's administration when he moves into the Oval Office in the new year, as his commerce secretary.

Various sources from the Trump transition team have said that Ross is to be selected for the role, in a week where the Republican has been working to formulate his first cabinet as president.

The 78-year-old businessman is the chairman and chief strategist of private equity firm WL Ross & Co, which specialises in buying companies in financial difficulty.

The president-elect has faced criticism after pledging to "drain the swamp" of business interests in Washington, followed by his courting of Wall Street executives Jamie Dimon and Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary.

Ross had previously advised the Trump campaign in the run-up to his election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, and is estimated to be worth around $2.9bn according to Forbes. He has spoken out against trade deals the US currently is involved in, referring to them as "bondage".

However, rather than supporting the same protectionist stance on trade that the president-elect has espoused, Ross commented last week that he favours trading with other nations, albeit not in a traditional sense.

He said that the US should see itself as "the world's biggest consumer", and negotiate trade deals based on that premise, treating other nations as "suppliers".

Other appointments to Trump's cabinet so far include Stephen Bannon as chief strategist and Rience Priebus as White House chief of staff.

Michael Flynn was added as national security adviser also this week, a decision which has also attracted flak due to the army general's hard-line stance on Islamic terrorism.