The President's rotten record on trade: why George W. Bush is the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover.
Reason › Vol. 38 Nbr. 2, June 2006
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The President's rotten record on trade: why George W. Bush is the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover.
HERBERT HOOVER IS rightly reviled for having the worst record on international trade of any president. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which Hoover signed into law in 1930 after a Republican Congress passed it, was a significant factor in deepening the Great Depression. Since then, every president has embraced at least the rhetoric of free trade. But actions and rhetoric are different things, and George W. Bush in particular has preached free trade while advancing the agenda of a petty protectionist.
In so doing, he's returning his party to its roots. From Lincoln through Hoover, a high tariff on imported manufactured goods was the foundation of Republican trade policy. The Democrats, as the party of the workingman, backed free trade. They understood that tariffs raised the prices of goods, fattened the profits of politically connected businessmen, and acted like a tax on the poor. After Smoot-Hawley led to a collapse of world trade and helped sow the seeds of World War H, a bipartisan anti-protectionist consensus emerged. Protection, it was understood, could lead to tit-for-tat retaliation by other countries that might explode into a trade war or even a shooting war. One of Franklin Rooseve...See the full content of this document
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