The first in a series of big free trade agreements, this one uniting the US, Canada and Mexico, NAFTA has certainly had it’s share of critics. But these days “free trade” is pretty much a fact of life, and NAFTA isn’t the household word it was back in the mid-nineties when presidents from both parties helped push it through.

I’d told a few people I was attending the NAFTA event, only to find that many didn’t know what it is.

“I currently don’t know if NAFTA is still in effect. Is it?” asks Rafael Flores, a bi-racial Canadian/Mexican tri-citizen, born in Seattle, who jokes that he’s been called a “NAFTA baby.”

At the meeting, which was opened up to 30 members of the public, I encountered an unlikely mix of consular officials, industry and trade experts, and protesters. The official guests were well-dressed with fancy pens and lapel pins with flags of Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Coming through the doors, guests were presented with glossy materials containing a dizzying array of numbers and graphs. I found out that North America is a trillion dollar market. The U.S., Canada and Mexico trade more with each other than with all other countries overseas.

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