In its (weak) defense, the NAFTA worker adjustment assistance program is no less fair than the larger TAA program upon which it is modeled. Studies of TAA when it was in its billion-dollar-plus heyday showed that workers certified as "permanently displaced" by trade were actually more likely to return to their original jobs than were other laid-off workers. The program, like its NAFTA clone, was meant to help workers adjust to the new realities of the labor market, but very few cash claimants (3 percent) enrolled in training and fewer than half of those completed it. (Given the dismal track record of most training programs, that's probably just as well.) Since then, TAA cash benefits have been pared and training requirements somewhat more rigorously enforced, so that program costs have shrunk to a still-hefty $200 million annually.