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.

Nina Vincent

Keizer, OR

Nina lost her job in payroll at the Chaquita food processing plant in Oregon when it closed in competition with imports.  Her mother also lost her job when the plant closed. 

Hear part of Nina's story...

“I worked there 13-and-a-half years.  It was not just the fact of the plant closing.  It was our family, and everybody was losing that.  It wasn’t just that we were losing work.

“They had given us warning.  It’s just unbelievable that a company could close, and put that many people out of a job, and seem so uncaring about it.  It makes me sick to see that it could happen, and it could happen to anybody.

“You see all the companies going overseas, and I don’t understand how they can.  I mean, I can understand the almighty dollar.  I can understand them making it more overseas.  But in the long run, what do they think is going to happen to this country if that does happen?”