History will judge the new era of US protectionism harshly
The unseemly contest by Joe Biden and Donald Trump to outdo each other in trade protectionism will make the world become less prosperous and more unpredictable.
A century ago, the Republicans passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 to protect the United States from German competition and rescue business from falling prices. The move triggered a global wave of tariff increases.
While long forgotten, echoes of Fordney-McCumber now reverberate across the US political landscape. Once again, politicians are grasping the tariff as a magic talisman against economic ills – the rise of China, the plight of workers and the general unfairness of the world economy.
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Gary Clyde Hufbauer is a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.
