Wilbur Ross, the banker-turned-investor and President-elect Trump’s pick to head the Commerce Department, told a Senate hearing Wednesday that his first priority should he get confirmed would be to address the flaws in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Addressing trade imbalances with China would be the next issue.
“The president-elect has made no secret that NAFTA is logically the first thing for us to deal with,” Ross told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Wednesday.
Trump has been a major critic of NAFTA, arguing that the 1993 agreement resulted in jobs and companies moving out of the U.S. He has called for opening up the trade deal and adjusting its terms. It is a rare area of agreement between Trump and the Left, which also generally opposes the deal.
Ross also said that China was the largest “protectionist” country in the world. “They talk much more about free trade than they actually practice,” he said. “We want to level that playing field.”
