- July 4, 1789: The Tariff Act of 1789 was signed into law by George Washington. It created an additional duty of 10% on imports carried on vessels not of The United States. I couldn’t find Alexander Hamilton’s blog, so you can read about about the law on Encyclopedia.com‘s page.
- June 17, 1930: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was signed into law by Herbert Hoover. It raised import duties to protect the agriculture sector and American farmers. This NPR interview describes the Act as “a classic economics horror story.” The act was related to counter-tariffs on U.S. exports, which contributed to The Great Depression.
- March 5, 2002: George W. Bush enacts steel tariffs of up to 30% on imports of steel. This MarketWatch article explains, “The Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition found that 200,000 workers in U.S. manufacturing lost their jobs as a result of the tariffs. For comparison, the entire U.S. steel industry employed 197,000 at the time.”
- September 11, 2009: Barack Obama imposes a 35% tariff on tires imported from China. This CBS article explains, “A 2012 Peterson Institute study by Gary Hufbauer and Sean Lowry suggested that the most generous assessment might say that the tariffs “saved a maximum of 1,200 jobs,” but that savings came at a high cost. Hufbauer and Lowry estimated that the price increase on non-Chinese tire imports added up to $817 million, and U.S. tire makers’ price increase as a result of the tariffs was $295 million. All told, they calculated that each of those 1,200 saved jobs ended up costing $900,000 each.”
- July 12, 2017: Obama and Bush advisors warn Trump against steel tariffs, according to this Washington Post article.
- March 22, 2018: Donald Trump enacts tariffs on Chinese imports. See CNBC’s article about the tariffs.
- April 4, 2018: China announces it will impose steep tariffs on U.S. products, including aircrafts. See NPR‘s article.
- April 4, 2018: Donald Trump tweets
Please follow and like us:
