Sponsors (4)
The resolution favors open, rules-based trade to lower prices, expand export markets, and strengthen supply chains, but highlights that tariff escalation and retaliation can cause severe economic contraction, lost exports, and damaged market access.
U.S. consumers and businesses (middle-class families, taxpayers) pay lower input and consumer prices because an open, rules-based trading system and lower tariffs reduce import costs.
U.S. exporters, including small businesses, farmers, and agricultural workers, gain access to larger overseas markets, supporting higher sales, job retention, and economic growth.
Small businesses and manufacturers experience more resilient supply chains and greater innovation through engagement in multilateral trade agreements, reducing the risk of production disruptions.
Workers and households (middle-class families, unemployed workers) can face severe macroeconomic harm—large GDP declines and spikes in unemployment—when tariff escalation occurs.
U.S. exporters (farmers, manufacturers, small businesses) can incur catastrophic export losses when tariffs trigger foreign retaliation, sharply reducing sales and wages in export-dependent industries.
U.S. firms (small exporters, agricultural producers) can lose market access and face consumer boycotts abroad when retaliatory measures provoke anti-U.S. sentiment, harming long-term export prospects.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Makes formal findings about the economic harms of high tariffs (Smoot–Hawley) and affirms benefits of an open, rules-based trading system.
Official title: Commemorating the 95th anniversary of the enactment of the Tariff Act of 1930.
Introduced June 17, 2025 by Maria E. Cantwell · Last progress June 17, 2025
States the Senate’s findings about the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and its economic effects, saying high tariffs in 1930 contributed to steep declines in trade, output, and employment during the Great Depression and noting later tariff reductions and benefits from an open, rules-based trading system. The resolution is a statement of historical facts and policy preference emphasizing that lower tariffs and international trade support innovation, cheaper inputs and consumer prices, stronger supply chains, and large export markets.