Tariffs in U.S. history, 1850 to 2025. Tariffs were high in the second half of the nineteenth century, when young American industry needed protection from more advanced British manufacturing. Tariffs were lower in the middle of the twentieth century, when American economic and financial dominance of the world was at its height, and U.S. industry was not in need of protection. And tariffs became lower than ever beginning in the 1970s, even though the U.S. competitive advantage was beginning to erode, a situation that called for a policy of higher tariffs to protect key industries; and even though the nations of the Global South were putting forth the principle of the right and duty of all nations to protect their national economies, standing against imposed neoliberal economic policies. In 2025, Trump responds to the anti-national globalism of the American political establishment. Data: Yale Budget Lab; Chart: Axios Visuals
The “reciprocal tariffs” imposed by President Donald Trump not …
