Constructive Words: Brief History of Tariffs wrt US Presidents
April 18, 2025
Evening 4/17/25 EST
The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. After Herbert Hoover became president in 1929, he called Congress into special session to deal with a troubled farm economy that had fallen into depression during the otherwise prosperous 1920s. President Hoover proposed a “limited revision” of the tariff on agricultural imports to raise rates and boost sagging farm prices.
In the decade after the end of the First World War, the United States continued to embrace the high tariffs that had characterized its trade policy since the Civil War.
This is a follow up to my recent blog post, https://hcn-cache.blogspot.com/2025/04/reflections-on-us-canada-relations-in.html, that mentioned Van Buren and Canadian neutrality in the discussion on tariffs; that hey- there is more than that, there is also for instance Hoover's Smoot.
Instead of writing a new article every time another tariff point possibly applicable presents itself, in the framework loosely of assessing current tariff issues/nonissues, let's (quickly) do a quick history. Of course this is not everything. In keeping blog tone, this piece of writing is somewhere between a blog post, commentary, and brief history rundown. AI served some assistance.
Instead of writing a new article every time another tariff point possibly applicable presents itself, in the framework loosely of assessing current tariff issues/nonissues, let's (quickly) do a quick history. Of course this is not everything. In keeping blog tone, this piece of writing is somewhere between a blog post, commentary, and brief history rundown. AI served some assistance.
George Washington signed the Tariff Act of 1789, the first major legislation approved by Congress, which imposed a 5% tax on many goods imported into the U.S. With no federal income tax, the policy was about finding sources of revenue for the government while also protecting American producers from foreign competition.
The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. After Herbert Hoover became president in 1929, he called Congress into special session to deal with a troubled farm economy that had fallen into depression during the otherwise prosperous 1920s. President Hoover proposed a “limited revision” of the tariff on agricultural imports to raise rates and boost sagging farm prices.
In the decade after the end of the First World War, the United States continued to embrace the high tariffs that had characterized its trade policy since the Civil War.
High tariffs were a means not only of protecting infant industries, but of generating revenue for the federal government. They were also a mainstay of the Republican Party, which dominated the Washington political scene after the Civil War. After the Democrats, who supported freer trade, captured Congress and the White House in the elections of 1910 and 1912, the stage was set for a change in tariff policy. With the 1913 Underwood-Simmons Tariff, the United States broke with its tradition of protectionism, enacting legislation that lowered tariffs (and also instituted an income tax). The reversion of Congress to Republican control during the First World War and the 1920 election of Republican Warren Harding to the presidency signaled an end to the experiment with lower tariffs. To provide protection for American farmers, whose wartime markets in Europe were disappearing with the recovery of European agricultural production, as well as U.S. industries that had been stimulated by the war, Congress passed the temporary Emergency Tariff Act in 1921, followed a year later by the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (RTAA)...1934
Posted by HCN.
