President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on imports on Wednesday, saying the measures will help boost American manufacturing but experts say it will raise prices for U.S. consumers.
Rep. Willis C. Hawley was an Oregon Republican who sponsored the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The law increased duties, started a trade war and is seen as having enhanced the negative impact of the Great Depression on many Americans.
Trump’s tariffs are being criticized by one of the descendants of a legislator who helped introduce tariffs in 1930
Carey Stewart Cezar, a retired nurse who is Hawley’s great-granddaughter, has likened the 1930 act to Trump’s new tariffs on imports.
“I think it’s a terrible idea and potentially devastating,” she told NBC News. “I think people don’t remember all the harm caused by tariffs in our history.”
The 70-year-old said her family’s legacy was part of her education.
“The Smoot-Hawley Act is part of my family’s history, and I learned about it as a kid,” she said.
Cezar said her mother was “deeply embarrassed” of her last name being Hawley because the law had such an impact on the economy. She was able to change her name when she got married.
Cezar added that she has already noticed the impact of Trump’s tariff plans in her own life. Her 401(k) retirement account has lost around 10% of its value.
Experts say tariffs will have a bigger impact on the economy than the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
At the time, the 1930 law was “one of the most controversial tariff acts ever enacted by Congress,” Dartmouth College economics professor Doug Irwin wrote in 2020, per NBC News.
He added that today’s impact will be bigger as imports of goods and services represent 14% of the current US gross domestic product. That triple the share they represented in 1930.
“This is going to be much bigger than Smoot-Hawley,” he told Bloomberg. “Imports are a much greater share of GDP now than they were back in the early 1930s by a long shot.”
Other countries are preparing for their own economies to be affected by Trump’s tariffs
The president of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde told EU leaders they need to prepare for a worst-case scenario in case the U.S. kickstarts an international economic conflict, according to Bloomberg. Canada is also working to make changes to its exports. The country has had a trade agreement with the US since the 1980s.
“The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said, according to Bloomberg.
