Smoot-Hawley Tariff

(noun)

An act signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels.

Related Terms

Examples of Smoot-Hawley Tariff in the following topics:

  • Hoover's Efforts at Recovery

    • Despite the objections of many economists, Hoover signed the Tariff Act of 1930, commonly called the Smoot–Hawley Tariff, which raised the entry tax on more than 20,000 items imported from foreign countries to historically high levels.
    • Sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Willis C.
    • Lamont was quoted as saying he “almost went down on my knees to beg Herbert Hoover to veto the asinine Hawley-Smooth tariff.”
    • Hawley, left, and Sen.
    • Reed Smoot in April 1929, shortly before the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act passed the House of Representatives.

  • Planter Power

    • The Tariff of 1828 was a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828, designed to protect industry in the northern United States.
    • The Tariff marked the high point of US tariffs.
    • It was approached, but not exceeded, by the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.
    • The first protective tariff was passed by Congress in 1816; its tariff rates were increased in 1824.
    • Representatives in the New England states to vote for the tariff increase (House Vote on Tariff of 1828).

  • Competing Solutions

    • First, in 1930, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that raised U.S. tariffs.

  • From Protectionism to Liberalized Trade

    • At the beginning of the republic, for instance, statesman Alexander Hamilton advocated a protective tariff to encourage American industrial development -- advice the country largely followed.
    • U.S. protectionism peaked in 1930 with the enactment of the Smoot-Hawley Act, which sharply increased U.S. tariffs.
    • The U.S. approach to trade policy since 1934 has been a direct outgrowth of the unhappy experiences surrounding the Smoot-Hawley Act.
    • In 1934, Congress enacted the Trade Agreements Act of 1934, which provided the basic legislative mandate to cut U.S. tariffs.
    • The United States supported trade liberalization and was instrumental in the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an international code of tariff and trade rules that was signed by 23 countries in 1947.