The History of Trade Policy

Worldwide, average tariffs on imports of manufactured goods are today one-tenth what they were right after World War II. In the United States, average tariff levels on imports of manufactures have fallen to just 2.5 percent from their peak of over 50 percent in 1930. Most foreign goods now enter the countries with the highest incomes without paying any tariff. The lowering of trade barriers over the past sixty years does not represent an irreversible trend, however. Just eighty years ago, the world sharply increased tariffs and other trade barriers.