Trade as Foreign Policy
When local concerns drive national trade policies, there are global consequences.
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Now a notorious example of a shortsighted trade strategy, the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised U.S. tariffs on twenty thousand imported goods, was framed as a piece of domestic legislation. But when it affected producers in Canada, Cuba, Europe, and elsewhere, it set off an international trade war, underlining the connection between global trade and international relations.
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