This Billionaire Investor Is Backing Donald Trump, Says 'All Of Our Bad Trade Deals Could Have Been Good Ones'

Wilbur Ross is a billionaire investor best known for restructuring failed companies within steel, coal, telecommunication and other sectors. In an op-ed published on CNBC Friday, Ross and Peter Navarro, a professor of economics and public policy at the Paul Merage School of Business, threw their support behind Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

According to Ross and Navarro, U.S. politicians and diplomats have failed at negotiating trade deals: a common theme of Trump's campaign. The authors offered an example to back up the claim: President Bill Clinton said in 1993 when he signed the NAFTA agreement that it would create 200,000 domestic jobs within two years.

Instead, the U.S. lost 700,000 jobs due to the signing of NAFTA, and the domestic trade deficit with Mexico soared from $1.6 billion in 1993 to $60 billion in 2015.

Related Link: Dispelling The Myths: Donald Trump And Bankruptcy

President Clinton also supported China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTFO) in 2001 on the belief the Asian country will "play by the same open trading rules we do." However, the United States had had to file "WTO case after case against China's questionable trade practices" involving multiple sectors.

Meanwhile, the WTO provides "little or no protection" against currency manipulation, intellectual property theft and the use of sweatshop labor and pollution havens.

"Here's the tragedy," the authors wrote. "And one that would never occur if an 'art of the trade deal' Trump were in the Oval Office: All of our bad trade deals could have been good ones if we had simply bargained tougher."

Same Old Story Under Secretary Clinton

Ross and Navarro went on to point out that as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's self-described "cutting edge trade deal" with South Korea was expected to create 70,000 new domestic jobs. Like the NATO deal, the United States lost out and the trade deficit with South Korea doubled and resulted in the loss of more than 75,000 jobs.

"It's not too late to save America's existing trade deals through tough renegotiations," the letter concluded. "Donald Trump knows that as the world's largest and most lucrative market, America has an enormous bargaining chip."

Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email feedback@benzinga.com with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card!