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WASHINGTON — To paint wholesaler Erasmo Hinojosa, free trade means savings for his grandchildren’s college, more weekend getaways and the possibility of an early retirement. 

To Carol Colborn, a former factory inspector, free trade means losing 33 years of seniority and being forced to accept a job with lower pay and little vacation. 

Hinojosa and Colborn are two faces of the trade debate that will be reignited when President Bush attends the Summit of the Americas in Canada this weekend. 

Bush and 33 other Western Hemisphere leaders are pushing the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a hemisphere-wide agreement targeted for 2005. Advocates say it would boost U.S. exports and help the economy while encouraging Latin American and Caribbean countries to continue moving toward democracy and free markets. 

Opponents, including many congressional Democrats, say free-trade agreements have hurt U.S. workers by encouraging companies to cut costs and move to countries with lower wages, poor working conditions and lax environmental standards. 

For Hinojosa and Colborn, it’s an issue that goes beyond the debates in Congress or the protests that have occurred in Seattle and Washington – and are anticipated in Quebec City this weekend. Free trade has changed their lives. 

Hinojosa credits free trade for his job managing a Mexican-owned paint wholesaler and retailer in San Antonio, Texas. He’s doubled his income and declares, “I can now see a future.” 

Colborn blames it for the loss of the job she held for 33 years, at a company that makes controls for gas appliances in New Stanton, Pa., 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. 

Colborn started working at the plant when she was 22. She worked her way up to a quality control inspector, making $14.50 an hour with five weeks of vacation, 11 holidays, and both pension and 401(k) savings plans. 

But in January 2000, the plant was shut by its last owner, the British company Invensys. Colborn and her union, United Steelworkers Local 1163, say many of the jobs went to Mexico. 

A company official in Richmond, Va., Andrew Bonham, said the shutdown resulted from a consolidation following the merger that created Invensys.  

He said 50 percent of the plant’s production went to outside contractors, 35 percent to a company plant in Mexico and 15 percent to one in West Plains, Mo. 

Three months after losing her job, Colborn found work conducting quality-control audits for a subcontractor to a supermarket chain. She earns $2 an hour less, has only five holidays, one week of vacation and no pension plan other than the 401(k). 

“I’m starting at the bottom and working my way up again. What took me 33 years, now I’m starting completely over,” said Colborn, 55.  

Colborn, who is divorced, said she has to be more careful about what she buys. She planned to remodel her kitchen, but can only afford to replace some windows. 

Also 55, Hinojosa said his life has become more comfortable, thanks to his job managing the Amerimex Paint Center. 

He now hopes to retire by age 62. Before he got that job, “I believed I would be working until I died,” he said. 

Hinojosa started at Amerimex when it opened in 1995. The Mexican paint company Comex opened the store a year after the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, formed a trade bloc among the United States, Mexico and Canada.  

Though NAFTA didn’t directly affect the business, it created an environment that encouraged cross-border trade, said Brian Martin, a Comex manager in San Antonio. 

Hinojosa said his previous job managing a paint store paid $32,000 a year. Now, including bonuses, profit sharing and other benefits, he earns about $75,000. 

“That has given me a little more stability than in the other job I had,” he said. “I could not see a future. Now I see a future.”