— I don't realize what the president's trying to do with these tariffs. It doesn't make sense. The marketplace suffers, people endure due to it,” says Peter Tuchman, 1 of the most celebrated investors on Wall Street in history, in an interview with the portal “Blick”.
Trump policy is not the first case of customs application in US history. During the large economical crisis, the Americans introduced the Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930. It has led to a drastic increase in US tariffs for more than 20,000 products.
"Economic stupidity"
In the context “Day of the Liberation of America” announced by Trump The 1930 Act is now recalled. It was supported by Republican Senator Reed Smoot (1862-1941) and Republican Congressman Willis C. Hawley (1864-1941).
In consequence to the protectionist course of the United States in the 1930s, many countries introduced retaliation duties. These included Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Australia and Switzerland.
As a result, US imports fell by 66% between 1929 and 1933 — from $4.4 billion to $1.5 billion. American exports fell by 61 percent, from 5.4 to 2.1 billion dollars.
Today, economists agree that this decline in trade — caused by US criminal duties — has greatly exacerbated the effects of the global economical crisis. Like today, many experts at the time pointed to the problems that the trade war could cause.
For example, in May 1930, more than 1,000 economists signed a petition against the Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act. Henry Ford (1863-1947), the founder of the U.S. car brand Ford, described the bill as “economic madness”.
Line of unemployed in fresh York City during the large crisis (illustration picture)
Will Donald Trump remember?
At the time, politicians had individual consequences for them. Both Reed Smoot and Willis C. Hawley lost their seats in legislature in the 1932 election.
Trump will gotta face the consequences of the escalation of the trade war and may be politically liable in 2 years. The mid-term elections in the US will take place in November 2026.
However, it is possible that by then the issue of customs will already be in the past, due to the fact that unlike the 1930s, the U.S. legislature has not passed any regulations yet. Instead, Trump ordered the work by decree — without Congress. This gives him flexibility to rapidly abolish or further increase tariffs.
Pressure is already rising: stock markets worldwide declined rapidly after Trump announced duties.
There seems to be 1 appeal in the current situation for Donald Trump: it is time to read a book, Mr President, preferably historical!
‘America's Liberation Day’
"We have very good news. quite a few good things are happening in our country. It's liberation day. We've been waiting a long time. 2 April 2025 will be remembered forever due to the fact that the American manufacture will be reborn" — said Donald Trump, announcing duties. He had previously announced that he would do so on April 2, and that day he called it “the day of the liberation of America.”
The U.S. president has announced that from April 5 the US will introduce minimum 10-percent import duties from all countries. However, he confirmed that from 9 April the United States would introduce even higher duties for a peculiar group of countries.
For the European Union, this will be 20%. As for the People's Republic of China, it is to be 34 percent. Higher duties will besides not avoid: Switzerland (31%), India (26%), South Korea (25%) or Japan (24%).
