Reply #10: Just so you know, GATT doesn't exist anymore. The WTO took its place.

[pampango]

It was called GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) when FDR and Truman pushed it as a post-war mechanism to revive world trade after the tariff wars (Smoot-Hawley and others) of the 1930's and WWII. FDR and Truman thought GATT (and the trade it facilitated) was a good way to help rebuild economies destroyed by the war and to make future wars less likely - believing that countries that trade with each other are less likely to go to war with each other. Undoubtedly they were influenced by the tariff and trade wars that were prevalent in the years leading up to WWII.

The WTO replaced GATT in 1995.

You're right. NAFTA and GATT/WTO do represent some diminution of our "sovereignty" as does any international agreement (like the UN or climate agreements). When your country agrees to do something (or not to do something) in exchange for other countries living up to their commitments, you do lose some "sovereignty". That doesn't mean that all international agreements are bad (I'm glad the UN exists and hope that a binding climate treaty can be negotiated) - just that the pluses and minuses of each international agreement are more important than the sovereignty issue.