If nothing else, hype has drawn attention to international trade.

A large amount of misinformation has been published and broadcast about the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement.

Not all has been hype from the mouths of economic development officials and chambers of commerce. Even the citadel of business journalism, The Wall Street Journal, succumbed to free trade mania in an Aug. 31 editorial.

The Journal stirred itself after the Democratic national ticket of Bill Clinton and Albert Gore Jr. toured Western New York by bus. Clinton told a Buffalo audience that the Northeast was suffering, no matter what then-President Bush was saying.

"Look at the changing structure of the economy just here in Buffalo," Clinton said, "and …