From an academic perspective, the central issue in today’s trade debate is not simply whether China is rising or whether the United States is declining. The deeper question is whether the global economy can remain stable if the United States reduces its traditional role as the main anchor of trade openness. In recent years, U.S. tariff policy has become more closely tied to industrial security, supply-chain resilience, and selective market control. Official U.S. policy docume

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 remains one of the most widely discussed trade laws in modern economic history. In academic study, its importance does not rest only on the tariff schedule itself, but on the larger chain of events that followed: political pressure, protectionist escalation, foreign retaliation, weaker trade flows, and the widening of economic stress during the Great Depression. In the United States today, Smoot-Hawley is not important because it is still a