For Commerce Pick Wilbur Ross, 'Inherently Bad' Deals Paid Off
By AZAM AHMED and ELISABETH MALKINFEB. 25, 2017
MEXICO CITY — With a panel of senators questioning him, the billionaire investor Wilbur L. Ross stayed on message: If confirmed as President Trump’s commerce secretary, he would protect American workers and tear up bad trade deals that harmed American industry.
And yet, for more than a decade, those same trade deals helped Mr. Ross amass a fortune across the globe — in countries like Mexico and China, among others. In fact, Mr. Ross has sometimes invested overseas in ways that Mr. Trump condemns.
As the head of an auto parts company, Mr. Ross shipped jobs to Mexico, taking advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he now says is unfair and must be renegotiated. That company, along with a textile firm he founded, publicly stated that Mexico was central to their growth.
To some of his former associates, that history clangs against the persistent message of Mr. Trump, who has called Nafta “the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country” and has excoriated American businesses for sending jobs overseas.
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/world/americas/wilbur-ross-trump-commerce-secretary.html?emc=edit_th_20170226&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284&_r=0
= new reply since forum marked as read
