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Trade Talks Episode 31: Trade Wars and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff: What Really Happened?

Soumaya Keynes of The Economist and PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown speak with Douglas Irwin (PIIE and Dartmouth College) about popular misconceptions around the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, the Great Depression, and the global trade wars that ensued. They discuss how the gold standard, tariffs, quotas, exchange controls, imperial preferences, and bartering all fit into the dismantling of the international trading system in the 1930s. They then put President Trump’s trade policy actions to date—and the international response thus far—into perspective.

Featuring Soumaya Keynes (The Economist) and Chad P. Bown (PIIE)