Reading, PA - The North American Free Trade Agreement was supposed to reduce trade barriers among Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, increase good-paying jobs and improve quality of life.

Instead, poverty increased, corporations profited and jobs were lost, boosting immigration to the U.S, three speakers said Tuesday at a program in Reading about the effects of NAFTA.

Phila Back, an organizer for Working Families Win, a pro-labor advocacy group, invited the speakers to Reading to make people more aware of NAFTA and its effects on immigration.

"Reading has been affected so heavily by job loss due to NAFTA and other NAFTA-like trade agreements," she said. "NAFTA is driving immigration. It's increasing poverty in Mexico dramatically. Meanwhile, Reading has lost 12,000 good jobs since 2000. So Reading is the perfect intersection of these two."

More than 20 people attended the presentation at the Center for the American Dream in downtown Reading.

Since NAFTA was passed in 1993, laws and regulations in the three countries have been challenged by secret trade tribunals and that's not right, Back said.

Migration from Mexico to the U.S. drastically increased after NAFTA was enacted, said Hector E. Sanchez, Mexico Policy Education Coordinator for Global Exchange, an international human rights organization.

"There have been factories that have moved operations to Mexico, but not enough to make up for the plants, factories and workplaces that have shut down in Mexico," said Miguel Pickard, a researcher for the Center for Economic and Political Investigation for Community Action, a research organization based in Chiapas, Mexico.

NAFTA abolished Mexican trade protections that required foreign companies to hire Mexican workers, reinvest a portion of profits back into the country and buy some materials made in Mexico. Ending those regulations caused a ripple effect on the Mexican economy, causing migration to the U.S., Pickard said.

Carleen Pickard, an organizer for public advocacy organization Council of Canadians, warned about the security and prosperity partnership, a joint economic venture among the leaders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. She isn't related to Miguel Pickard.

When the partnership takes action, legislators aren't involved, she said.

It's one more way corporations will try to privatize things such as Canada's health care system or sell bulk amounts of Canadian water, Carleen Pickard said.

The audience members shouldn't give up hope, the speakers said. They can take action and made a difference.

People can push for new trade policies that protect workers and the environment. They can ask presidential candidates about their stands on trade issues and urge politicians to start talking about making NAFTA better.