In theory at least, imports might injure workers in several different ways: fewer jobs, lower wages, or poor
working conditions. Let’s consider these in turn.

Fewer Jobs?

In the early 1990s, the United States was negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)1
with Mexico, an agreement that reduced tariffs, import quotas, and nontariff barriers to trade between the

United States, Mexico, and Canada. H. Ross Perot, a 1992 candidate for U.S. president, claimed, in prominent

campaign arguments, that if the United States expanded trade with Mexico, there would be a “giant sucking

sound” as U.S. employers relocated to Mexico to take advantage of lower wages. After all, average wages in

Mexico were, at that time, about one-eighth of those in the United States. NAFTA passed Congress, President

Bill Clinton signed it into law, and it took effect in 1995. For the next six years, the United States economy had
{"upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:24:38.309401", "source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader", "file_type": ".pdf", "creator": "PDFMiner", "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "batch_upload": true, "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a", "title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "total_pages": 597, "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "file_size_mb": 26.99}