Study: Past US protectionism a failure

US trade protection measures, including Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, have not only imposed huge costs on consumers in the United States and on the country's economy but have failed to achieve their primary policy aims, according to a report published this week.

Scott Lincicome, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, surveyed academic literature throughout US history. He examined three periods - the founding of the US to its entry into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947; the GATT's early years to the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995; and the current World Trade Organization (WTO) era.

"The surveys show that, contrary to the fashionable rhetoric, American protectionism has repeatedly failed as an economic strategy," Lincicome said.