A vocal critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement will be in charge of the U.S. commerce portfolio, with the nomination ...of Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor who condemns foreign sales taxes as a backdoor tariff on American goods.

The 79-year-old investor in manufacturing companies helped write Donald Trump’s trade platform — which accused U.S. trading partners of using value-added taxes as an economic weapon, to force American companies to move offshore.

Ross co-authored an economic policy paper that proposed renegotiating NAFTA and included a call for combating the use of foreign consumption taxes that render American-made goods less competitive. Trump echoed the paper’s views in campaign speeches.

The document argued that foreign countries offer a sales-tax rebate on their own goods shipped abroad, but then tax incoming products from the U.S., which does not have a value-added tax. The net effect, he said, is to invite U.S. companies to relocate...

...“If Canada loves its value-added tax, or its GST as they call it … that’s fine. That doesn’t bother Trump at all.” But when it’s applied to imports, Hufbauer said: “He sees it as a tariff when you levy it at the border.”

He said one of two things might happen: the U.S. will push for an end on tax rebates for products shipped into the U.S., or introduce its own rebates as suggested in a plan by Republican congressional leader Paul Ryan...

This was excerpted from 1 December 2016 editon of the Financial Post.