Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act: 1,028 Economists, Canada's Revenge and Section 338

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In the 1920s, tractors and trucks replaced horses and mules, freeing the one sixth to one quarter of American farmland that had grown animal feed. Farmers planted cash crops instead, and food prices collapsed. Herbert Hoover had promised in 1928 to help farmers with higher agricultural tariffs, and Senator Reed Smoot of Utah and Representative Willis C. Hawley of Oregon carried the bill. Through logrolling, it grew from a farm measure into tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods. A 1927 League of Nations conference in Geneva had urged an end to tariffs, more than 1,028 economists petitioned for a veto, Henry Ford called the bill an economic stupidity and J.P. Morgan's Thomas W. Lamont said he nearly begged on his knees. Hoover, facing cabinet resignation threats, signed it on June 17, 1930.

Dutiable rates peaked at 59.1 percent by 1932. Canada answered with tariffs on 16 products making up 30 percent of U.S. exports there and turned to imperial preference with Britain, and countries from Cuba to Australia retaliated. Global trade fell about 66 percent from 1929 to 1934 and U.S. unemployment reached 25 percent. The episode notes that monetarists such as Milton Friedman blame the money supply and bank failures for the crash itself. Smoot and Hawley lost their seats in 1932, and Franklin Roosevelt's Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934 moved tariff bargaining to the executive branch, setting up GATT in 1947.

• U.S. exports to Europe fell from $2.3 billion to $784 million.
• In a 1993 NAFTA debate, Al Gore handed Ross Perot a framed photo of Smoot and Hawley shaking hands.
• The act's consumptive demand exception allowed imports made with forced labor when domestic supply fell short, until a 2016 amendment championed by Representative Ron Kind ended it.
• The episode reports that in July 2026 the administration invoked Section 338, unused for 96 years, which allows tariffs of up to 50 percent on nations that discriminate against U.S. commerce.
• According to the episode, the 50 percent tariffs on Canadian industries, effective August 19, followed severe 2026 Canadian wildfire smoke over the northern United States.