An article on cross-border trade with Canada. President John Yohe of Megquier &

An article on cross-border trade with Canada. President John Yohe of Megquier & Jones Inc. in South Portland says his firm, which supplies structural steel components, is losing jobs in Maine because of lower-cost Canadian products. He blames the 1989 U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Greg O\u27Donnell, owner of Bangor-based Maine Valve and Fitting Co., bought a New Brunswick company and increased his sales 27 percent. The Legislature recently commissioned the first comprehensive study on the effect of NAFTA and cross-border trade on Maine businesses. Legislators have introduced bills that attempt to deal with the effect of NAFTA on the most-affected sectors--metal products, steel fabrication, natural resource-based industries, and manufactured housing. Canadian provinces have more power than Maine states to set their own import-export rules, despite NAFTA. With details the trade-related bills and how the new study is expected to guide the creation of future bills