 "Trump claims the Great Depression would never have happened if US levied tariffs")
While announcing reciprocal tariffs on around 60 nations, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the Great Depression, which hit the country in the 1930s would not have happened if tariffs had continued.
In his address, the president argued that before the income tax of US citizens was established back in 1913, America leaned into tariffs and was collecting significant money from other nations.
However, he noted that the US ended tariffs despite the Tariff Act introduced by former President Herbert Hoover at that time. “In 1929, it all came to a very abrupt end with the Great Depression, and it would have never happened if they had stayed with the tariff policy, would have been a much different story,” Trump said in his Wednesday address.
“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," he added.
What is he talking about?
The Tariffs Act of 1930, also known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raised tariffs on tens of thousands of goods in the US and was known for its protectionist policy.
Economists have argued the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act actually “provoked a wave of foreign retaliation that plunged the world deeper into the Great Depression,” according to the Office of the Historian within the US State Department.
The State Department noted that following Hoover’s law, imports from Europe fell from $1.3 billion to just $390 million by 1932 and exports to Europe fell from $2.3 billion to $784 million by 1932.
Trump’s remarks on the matter came as he announced a 10 per cent tariff that will go into effect on Friday on all countries and listed 60 nations which will face higher reciprocal tariffs, which will go into effect on April 9 at 12:01 am (local time). India is part of the list of 60 countries, with Trump announcing 26 per cent tariffs on New Delhi.
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