It is based on Peter Landesman's article "The Girls Next Door" about sex slaves, which was featured as the cover story in the January 24, 2004, issue of The New York Times Magazine.

[2] The film follows two people who are kidnapped by an international sexual slavery gang in Mexico City.

Adriana, Veronica and the Thai boy are smuggled into the US with the help of corrupt Mexican policemen, but the group is caught by the US Border Patrol.

At another stop, Veronica commits suicide by jumping from a cliff, telling the kidnapper that he will pay for his sins.

Ray and Jorge ask the New Jersey police to free Adriana, but they refuse; it would disrupt their strategy against the gang's larger criminal organization.

Ray brings the money to the house, but asks the gang boss a personal question, which makes her suspicious.

The siblings are flown back to Mexico City, where Adriana is joyfully reunited with her mother, and Jorge seeks revenge.

[3] Emmerich had already been looking for another director to helm Trade due to his commitments to 10,000 BC and offered Kreuzpaintner the job.

[5] Robert Koehler of Variety said that "With all of the earmarks of being a serious and thoughtful drama written and based on Peter Landesman's investigative work on the international sex slave trade network, it comes as something of a shock to discover that the final film is little more than a exploitative thriller".

[6] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called Trade "[a]n eagerly prurient dip into the sex-trafficking trough", adding that "[it] teeters between earnest exposé and salacious melodrama, but criticizing film's "near-visible weight of conscience", which if not for it, would have guaranteed a success in the second category.