JFlorio wrote:
The first question to be answered is do we have fair trade? If not, why not?
Quick example. We put a 2.5% tariff on auto's imported to the U.S.. Europe slaps us with a 10% tariff when we export automobiles to them and China adds a whopping 25% tariff. This seem fair to anyone?
So when Trump says he will raise tariff's (whether you agree or not) why is the MSM freaking out when this was what he ran on?
The last time we embarked on this game it extended the Great Depression for another 6 years and resulted in WWII and the rise of communism, Fascism and Naziism and gave the world Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, Broz Tito and Mussolini, not to mention Tojo and Hiorohito.
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
UNITED STATES [1930]
WRITTEN BY:
· The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica
Alternative Titles: Hawley–Smoot Tariff Act, United States Tariff Act
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, formally United States Tariff Act of 1930, also called Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, U.S. legislation (June 17, 1930) that raised import duties to protect American businesses and farmers, adding considerable strain to the international economic climate of the Great Depression. The act takes its name from its chief sponsors, Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Willis Hawley ofOregon, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. It was the last legislation under which the U.S. Congress set actual tariffrates.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised the United States’s already high tariff rates. In 1922 Congress had enacted the Fordney-McCumber Act, which was among the most punitive protectionist tariffs passed in the country’s history, raising the average import tax to some 40 percent. The Fordney-McCumber tariff prompted retaliation from European governments but did little to dampen U.S. prosperity. Throughout the 1920s, however, as European farmers recovered from World War I and their American counterparts faced intense competition and declining prices because of overproduction, U.S. agricultural interests lobbied the federal government for protection against agricultural imports. In his 1928 campaign for the presidency, Republican candidate Herbert Hoover promised to increase tariffs on agricultural goods, but after he took office lobbyists from other economic sectors encouraged him to support a broader increase. Although an increase in tariffs was supported by most Republicans, an effort to raise import duties failed in 1929, largely because of opposition from centrist Republicans in the U.S.Senate. In response to the stock market crash of 1929, however,protectionism gained strength, and, though the tariff legislation subsequently passed only by a narrow margin (44–42) in the Senate, it passed easily in the House of Representatives. Despite a petition from more than 1,000 economists urging him to veto the legislation, Hoover signed the bill into law on June 17, 1930.
Smoot-Hawley contributed to the early loss of confidence on Wall Street and signaled U.S. isolationism. By raising the average tariff by some 20 percent, it also prompted retaliation from foreign governments, and many overseas banks began to fail. (Because the legislation set both specific and ad valorem tariff rates [i.e., rates based on the value of the product], determining the precise percentage increase in tariff levels is difficult and a subject of debate among economists.) Within two years some two dozen countries adopted similar “beggar-thy-neighbour” duties, making worse an already beleaguered world economy and reducing global trade. U.S. imports from and exports to Europe fell by some two-thirds between 1929 and 1932, while overall global trade declined by similar levels in the four years that the legislation was in effect.
In 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, reducing tariff levels and promoting trade liberalization and cooperation with foreign governments. Some observers have argued that by deepening the Great Depression the tariff may have contributed to the rise of political extremism, enabling leaders such as Adolf Hitler to improve their political strength and gain power.
Read More Here:
https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/The-Great-Depression#ref61306220th-century international relations: Political consequences of the Depression
The Smoot–Hawley Tariff, the highest in U.S. history, became law on June 17, 1930. Conceived and passed by the House of Representatives in 1929, it may well have contributed to the loss of confidence on Wall Street and signaled American unwillingness to play the role of…
Read More Here:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/20th-century-international-relations-2085155/The-origins-of-World-War-II-1929-39#ref304230