Diagram of the British slave ship Brookes, published in 1788. Public domain, British Library.
NAFTA, in force in 1994, tied the United States, Canada, and Mexico into one production system.
If money is tight, a plant that leaves town is the whole theory, in one paycheck.
If you are in the middle, cheaper goods and a threatened job can be the same treaty.
If you have savings, a supply chain across a border is a way to raise a margin.
The North American Free Trade Agreement took effect on January 1, 1994.
Trade among the three countries grew.
The fight over whose town gained a factory and whose town lost one never became a settled number everyone accepted, because the lives were local and the studies did not agree.
Source: North American Free Trade Agreement, effective January 1, 1994.