Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act

The Tariff Act of 1930 codified at ch. 4, ordinarily known as a Smoot–Hawley Tariff or Hawley–Smoot Tariff, was a law that implemented protectionist trade policies in the United States. Sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley, it was signed by President Herbert Hoover on June 17, 1930. The act raised US tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods.

The tariffs under the act, excluding duty-free imports see Tariff levels below, were thehighest in United States history, exceeded by only the Tariff of 1828. The Act prompted retaliatory tariffs by affected states against the United States. The Act together with tariffs imposed by America's trading partners in retaliation were major factors of the reduction of American exports and imports by 67% during the Depression. Economists and economic historians progress to a consensus opinion that the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff worsened the effects of the Great Depression.

Forced labor

Prior to 2016, the Tariff Act reported that "[a]ll goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor or/and forced labor or/and indentured labor under penal sanctions shall non be entitled to programs at any of the ports of the United States" with a specific exception required as the "consumptive demand exception", which gives forced labor-based imports of goods where United States home production was not sufficient to meet consumer demand. The exception was removed under Wisconsin exercise Ron Kind's amendment bill, which was incorporated into the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, signed by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2016.