For too long, debates over international trade have been dominated by corporate elites and economic ideologues, rather than rooted in the experiences of ordinary Americans. 

The Trade Stories Project allows people who have been affected by policies and institutions like NAFTA and the WTO to share their views on a matter crucial to the global economy. 

This includes displaced workers, farmers, small business owners and immigrants who have been typically excluded from the trade debate.

Gary Wampole

Woodburn, OR

Gary worked a AgriFrozen food processing plant for 21 years until it closed in competition with imports, laying off 453 people.

Hear part of Gary's story...

“They had farmers that went out and bought machinery and stuff, saying, 'Yeah, we're going to contract with you guys.  Go out and buy the machinery so that you can get the product in here on a timely basis.'  A lot of people went out and spent millions of dollars to accomplish this, because everybody was just believing in them.  It took a lot of people, farmers and employees, to the cleaners.  I mean, they didn't care.

"While we were still there, they were bringing in product from Mexico.  They were bringing in berries.  At one point there, we got a lot of cauliflower and broccoli from Mexico, too.  

"Woodburn is in the middle of the Willamette Valley.  The best soil in the world.  It destroys a lot of people when you take away where they can sell their product.

"I was talking to my friend the other day that I used to work with.  We'd take that job back in a heartbeat.  If it was offered to us where we'd go just back to work, we'd go back there, because it was a good place to work, and you knew everybody, and it was like family."