Hoover signs Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising duties on over 20,000 goods and triggering retaliatory trade war

President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act on June 17, 1930, raising duties on more than 20,000 imported goods to protect American industries during the onset of the Great Depression. U.S. trading partners including Canada, Britain, France, and Germany retaliated with tariffs of their own. U.S. exports fell by more than 60% between 1930 and 1932, deepening the Depression.