Pete Connell knows a trade violation when he sees one.

The president of Oxford Homes, he’s seen the Maine manufactured-housing industry reel since tariffs were lifted between Canada and the U.S. in 1998. He and other Maine manufacturers have seen 50 percent of their market share go to Canadian companies, while they have been unable to crack that northern market.

Particularly galling are the illegal laborers who cross the border and install homes for less than their American counterparts, he said.

“The evidence-gathering is the responsibility of the victim,” said Connell, noting that when he sees illegal installers putting up manufactured homes, he contacts immigration authorities.

“But (the Immigration and Naturalization Service) doesn’t come, or they come four days later,” he said.

To Connell, the issue of fair trade has obvious ramifications for him and his 150 workers. It’s hard to compete on price when your competitors to the north don’t have to pay health care or workers’ compensation costs. Last October he had to lay off 26 workers.

But Connell understands it’s complex. He’s been probing the depths of that issue since joining the Maine Citizens Trade Policy Commission three years ago. It isn’t just fair wages, comparable environmental laws, and duty taxes anymore. Unless challenged, global trade can undermine the economic underpinnings of the state, he said.

“It’s a tremendously complicated issue,” Connell said. “We’re doing business with giants that have some tremendous advantages.”

It was a message brought home to Maine lawmakers last week by Alan Tonelson, an analyst and trade policy expert with the U.S. Business Industry Council, who addressed the Legislature at the commission’s invitation.

“Our trade policy is failing Maine,” Tonelson told a Sun Journal editorial board in advance of his Augusta speech. “If something is not done soon, our production base – the wealth-creating part of the American economy – well … it’s hard to imagine our economy going forward.”

Federal trade representatives, who negotiate free trade agreements, historically turn a deaf ear to states. The commission, under the direction of Lewiston state Sen. Peggy Rotundo and Rumford state Rep. John Patrick, attempts to give Mainers a voice in those discussions.

“Our concern is that international trade agreements are really impacting the sovereignty and authority of state government,” Rotundo said.

For example:

• A Canadian manufacturer of MBTE is suing the state of California in a world trade court for enacting a ban against the fuel additive. The Canadian company is arguing that under the terms of NAFTA, the California ban is severely restricting its ability to compete.

• Last month, the World Trade Organization upheld a previous ruling that the U.S. has to open itself to offshore Internet gambling. Antigua challenged a U.S. ban in 2003, as it began building an Internet gambling industry to make up for tourism losses.

“International trade agreements are impacting in ways most people have not even thought about,” Rotundo said. “We’ve moved beyond just thinking about tariffs.”

For the past three years, the commission has been beating a drum. Members have held public forums all around the state, soliciting testimony from people who have been affected by international trade agreements, pro and con.

This year, it invited two prominent trade policy experts – Tonelson last week and Peter Riggs of the Forum on Democracy & Trade in January – to speak to lawmakers in Augusta.

Last month the 17-member nonpartisan commission spearheaded a legislative resolution bound for Washington. It encourages Congress to come up with a new way of pursuing U.S. trade agreements that includes input from states – a move some trade experts consider audacious.

“Fortunately, Maine’s citizens and Legislature saw early on the importance of being engaged on trade – not only in playing offense on economic development, but also in playing defense to defend the right of the state to set its own policies,” said Riggs in his address. “Because of that, Maine has become one of the most listened-to states on trade policy. It’s influencing other states, it’s influencing U.S. trade negotiators, and it is energizing Maine’s federal representatives on trade, too.”

That officials in the U.S. Trade Representative office even knows the commission exists is probably the strongest evidence of its work.

“We’ve been working to establish a relationship with the USTR office – there have been calls and visits – and we continue to work on establishing a good relationship with them,” said Rotundo, who takes pains to emphasize that the commission in not anti-trade. “I think we’re all proud to lead the nation in this work.”

Commission members have been invited to other state legislatures to describe their work, but a lack of funds prevents them from going, said Rotundo. But some come here to pick their brains. Last summer, visitors from Vermont learned enough to form their own citizen trade group. Similar groups have formed in Utah, North Carolina, California and Washington. New Hampshire has a bill working through its legislature now.

Tonelson said states have enormous stakes in global trade.

“The (trade) debate has to get broader,” said Tonelson, whose organization represents the interests of 1,500 smaller companies across the country.

He said to understand the finer points of international trade, you have to understand the influence of huge multi-national corporations. They push for open trade because they can have their goods made in poorer countries, then turn around and sell them in American markets. Production costs shrink, while revenues increase.

American manufacturers, which typically pay the best wages and produce goods, can’t compete. And the loss of that base undermines the entire U.S. economy.

“In Maine, there’s just been a massacre,” said Tonelson, noting that the manufacturing sector of Maine grew 2.32 percent between 1997 and 2005, versus the national average of 27.5 percent.

Connell has his own numbers. Before restrictions were lifted, Canadian competitors had about 10 percent of the Maine manufactured home market and Pennsylvania was nipping its heels at 20 percent. Then in 2001, a Canadian firm targeted and took two of Oxford Homes’ largest accounts.

The move rattled Connell’s 150 employees, the seven retailers who sell his homes, his four manufacturers, and a whole host of cottage industries of installers, transporters, landscapers and others who rely on the manufactured-housing industry for their livelihoods.

They’ve had a rough go of it recently. This winter’s downturn in housing has made that market loss even more painful.

“This winter was abysmal for housing,” Connell said. “That other 50 percent of the market would have been quite handy.”