[ad_1]
What is less known, I suppose, is that America has also taken a strongly protectionist turnaround long before the infamous Smoot Hawley Act of 1930. In early 1921, Congress pbaded the law of the United States. the tariff, followed closely by the 1922 Fordney-McCumber tariff. These actions more than doubled the average tariffs on dutiable imports. Like Trump, proponents of these tariffs claimed that they would bring prosperity to all Americans.
They did not do it. There was indeed a manufacturing boom, fueled not by tariffs, but by new products such as affordable cars and new technologies such as the badembly line. Farmers, however, spent the 1920s suffering low prices for their products and high prices for their farm equipment, which led to an increase in the number of seizures.
Part of the problem is that US tariffs have provoked retaliation; Even before the crisis, the world was engaged in an increasingly intense trade war. Worse still, US tariffs put our World War I allies in an impossible position: we expected them to repay their huge war debts, but our tariffs prevented them from earning the dollars they needed to make these payments.
And the link between trade war and debt created a climate of mistrust and bitterness on the part of the international community that contributed to the economic and political crises of the 1930s. This experience had a profound impact on US policy after the Second World War, based on the view that free trade and peace went hand in hand.
So, I say that Trump repeats the policy mistakes that America made a century ago? No, this time it's a lot worse.
After all, if Warren Harding was not a very good president, he was not systematically abolishing international agreements. While America in the 1920s failed to help build international institutions, it did not do Trump and did not actively try to undermine them. And although American leaders between wars may have turned a blind eye to the rise of racist dictatorships, they did not generally praise these dictatorships and did not compare favorably with democratic regimes.
There are, however, enough parallels between US tariff policy in the 1920s and today's Trumpism to give us a pretty good idea of what happens when politicians think that tariffs are "nice". And it's ugly.
The Times is committed to publishing a variety of letters For the publisher. We would like to know what you think about this article or one of our articles. That's some advice. And here is our email: [email protected].
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
[ad_2]
Source link
