Everything good and bad about NAFTA can be explained by avocados and shoes

The North American Free Trade Agreement doesn’t seem to have as many fans these days. It was a punching bag during the 2016 US presidential election: Bernie Sanders never supported it, Hillary Clinton wanted to renegotiate it, then-candidate Donald Trump called it the “worst trade deal.”

As US president, Trump first threatened to pull out of NAFTA, and now insists he will renegotiate it. But rewind 20 years, and the story was much different. People were hopeful about the trade deal, and it had bipartisan political support in the US.

To understand why public opinion of and political support for NAFTA have shifted so dramatically, you have to understand America’s relationship with avocados and shoes. Watch our video to find out why.