jan 1, 1930 - Smoot-Hawley Tariff

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A high tariff on imports enacted in 1930, during the Great Depression, that was designed to stimulate American manufacturing. Instead it triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which hindered global trade and led to greater economic contraction.

Adherence to the gold standard was not the only economic orthodoxy that would prove damaging in the downturn. Hoover and many Republicans in Congress thought high tariffs (taxes on imported goods) could stimulate American manufacturing, as they had in previous eras. In 1930, Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Despite receiving a letter from more than a thousand economists warning of catastrophe and urging him to veto the bill, Hoover signed it into law. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which further hindered global trade and worsened economic contraction throughout the industrialized world. What had served American interests in earlier eras — protecting domestic industries and agriculture — now undermined them.

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