NAFTA & GATT were terrible, and are still terrible, as they are contributing to the deindustrialization of America. What is it with you free market "free trade" types? Do you not realize you're talking about the destruction of America's manufacturing sector? Oh yeah, that's great, for it's all in the name of "free trade" and the global ecnomy. Intelligent people should be able to see that "Free Trade" is bad for America. Are people insane?Let's propose a simple test.
- Scenario 1 -- Let's raise Domestic Taxation and regulation to 90% and raise Import Tariffs to 100%. What's the result? Will American Industry be "preserved from destruction" by the presence of high "protective" tariffs? Absolutely not. American Industry will utterly collapse; and thanks to the high tariffs, you won't be able to import anything either. (including the very raw materials which Industry needs for production in the first place!!)
- Scenario 2 -- Let's lower Domestic Taxation and regulation to 10% and raise Import Tariffs to zero. What's the result? Will American Industry be "destroyed" by the presence of zero "protective" tariffs? Absolutely not. American Industry will out-produce and out-compete every other producer in the global economy on all fronts and in all sectors. (especially since American Industry will be able to import needed raw materials for production with no unnecessary added-cost due to tariffs)
Protectionists are not only wrong-headed in their understanding of economics, they are fighting the wrong battle (and wasting valuable time and energy doing so).
The enemy of the Domestic Production Base is high domestic taxes and regulation, not low tariffs. Even if high tariffs "protected" Industry (and they do not; they just reward Inefficiency and add to the Cost of raw materials needed for production)... it would still do very little good to put a fence around a starving man to "protect" him from predators when you are still stealing the bread from his hands. The poor man will still starve to death, fence or no fence.
You do realize that your "plan" is bankrupting the country. Of course, this "free trade" is not fair trade. What makes you so confident in an utter failure of a policy?
Furthermore, why is it that protectionist policies brought about a strong America, higher buying power, and less foreign intervention? Unfortunately, you're operating on a failed system, and you're trying to justify the failure that it is. Unfortunately, we may not be able to go back to sane policies, for viewpoints like yours may prevent it. It will then be too late to do anything about it, as our country will be weakened to the point of virtually no return.
Again, facts from the past and present reveals which policy works.