Here's an interesting article written during the run up of NAFTA.  It's funny, those that were pointing out the problems of free trade back then had it right. Bill Clinton?  Not so much:

 

“Thus lower costs increasingly reflect not economic but political comparative advantage. Americans and workers in other industrial societies pay for this (George, 1992, Cavanaugh et al., 1992) in several ways that more than neutralize modest sporadic consumer price reductions. Indeed the latter have been less ubiquitous than alleged. Importers and wholesalers often use lower costs to boost profit margins. In other cases, lower quality manufacturers (e.g. razor blades, light bulbs, etc.) offset lower prices. Not only do monthly ratings by Consumer Reports reveal the modest quality that numerous "free trade" products offer to American consumers, but steady price inflation--considerably above the official CPI--contradicts the assumptions of those claiming that unregulated markets will engender lower prices during periods of slack demand (i.e. economic stagnation or recession).

 

In tandem with this trend, the depressed domestic economic environment for almost 70% of the population is favorable for new defensively nationalistic labor and populist political movements even in the United States. Thus Wren (1993: 28-29) pinpoints our "real problem [as] the paucity (scarcity) of consumer demand caused by unemployment and falling incomes. Firms won't increase output unless they believe their product will be purchased."

 

http://www.gmu.edu/programs/icar/ijps/vol2_1/Wolpin.htm

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