The last time the U.S. tariffed the world

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping global reciprocal tariffs for all countries, except for China.

Trump has long expressed his love of tariffs. Just last week, he spoke about how believes the U.S. was founded on tariffs, and that they could have helped the country avoid the Great Depression. Then, referring to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, the President said: “They tried to bring back tariffs to save our country, but it was gone. It was gone. It was too late. Nothing could have been done — took years and years to get out of that depression.”

Today on Front Burner, what lessons do the Smoot-Hawley tariffs offer during this moment of global economic chaos?

Asa McKercher is the Hudson Chair in Canada-U.S. relations at the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government. He’s back on Front Burner to talk about that and much more.

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