TY  - JOUR
AU  - Irwin, Douglas A
TI  - From Smoot-Hawley to Reciprocal Trade Agreements: Changing the Course of U.S. Trade Policy in the 1930s
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5895
PY  - 1997
Y2  - January 1997
DO  - 10.3386/w5895
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5895
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5895.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Douglas A. Irwin
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH  03755
Tel: 603/646-2942
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: douglas.irwin@dartmouth.edu
M1  - published as Douglas A. Irwin. "From Smoot-Hawley to Reciprocal Trade Agreements: Changing the Course of U.S. Trade Policy in the 1930s," in Michael D. Bordo, Claudia Goldin, and Eugene N. White, editors, "The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century" University of Chicago Press (1998)

AB  - Four years after passing the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930, Congress enacted the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (RTAA), which gave the president the authority to undertake tariff-reduction agreements (without Congressional approval) with foreign countries.  The resulting trade agreements reduced U.S. tariffs and culminated in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947.  Was the Great Depression responsible for bringing about this fundamental shift in U.S. trade policy?  This paper analyzes the changes in U.S. trade policy during this period and argues that (i) the Depression as an international phenomenon motivated the unprecedented Congressional delegation of tariff-making powers, (ii) economic changes more the result of World War II than the Depression blunted Republican opposition to the RTAA and ensured its post-war survival.
ER  -