The President's Rotten Record on Trade

Why George W. Bush is the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover

Bruce Bartlett | June 1, 2006

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/o:p> /span> /p> p class="Flargetext c4"> span class="c3"> o:p> /o:p> /span> /p> p class="Flargetext c4"> span class="c3">After Smoot-Hawley led to a collapse of world trade and helped sow the seeds of World War II , a bipartisan anti-protectionist consensus emerged. Protection, it was understood, could lead to tit-for-tat retaliation by other countries that might explode into a trade war or even a shooting war. One of Franklin Roosevelt’s first acts in office was to reverse Smoot-Hawley. He later insisted that freer trade be a key element of postwar planning, which led to the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Harry Truman required nations receiving Marshall Plan aid to adopt free trade policies, a decision that probably did more to revive Europe’s economies than the aid itself. Dwight Eisenhower supported creation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to help maintain free trade among major industrialized countries. o:p> /o:p>