The US has just passed a “free trade” agreement with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. While this is not really free trade (elimination of all government barriers to trade), it opens up many doors which were not open before for consumers. From Fox News:
But Tarsicio Mora, president of Colombia’s CUT labor federation, said Colombia’s economy was not ready to compete with the U.S.
“Our country isn’t developed, it does not have the expertise much less the requirements for trade at this level,” Mora said. “The country should be clear as to who is responsible for the coming massacre, because industry, large and small businesses are going to be hit because we are not in a condition to compete.”
Alternatively, from the AFLCIO:
The agreement, left over from the Bush administration, is another in a series of bad trade pacts negotiated by the Bush White House, deals that have contributed to a U.S. trade deficit of $677 billion in 2008, massive job loss and shrinking paychecks. Such trade deals have contributed to the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs in the United States since 2001.
Apparently, the free trade agreement means lost of jobs for both(!) countries. They must magically disappear in the ocean after leaving each respective country. Protectionism is a movement led by con artists, selling snake oil to gullible saps to make personal gain.