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1932 › Herbert Hoover (Republican) › Tariff levels
Preserve the bipartisan Tariff Commission's flexible power to adjust rates without congressional log-rolling
defense_of_recordspecific_pledgecandidate_directevidence A Executive PowerTrade & Tariffs similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Keep the 1930 act's flexible provisions under which the Tariff Commission recommends and the President adjusts rates up to 50 percent; oppose the Collier bill (vetoed) that would return rate-making to Congress.
Rationale
The commission 'enables us to correct any injustice ... without constant tinkering and orgies of logrolling'; the Democratic House never asked it to reconsider a single schedule.
Statements (4)
We commend the President's veto of the measure, sponsored by Democratic Congressmen, which would have transferred from the President to Congress the authority to put into effect the findings of the Tariff Commission.
Second: I am against their proposals to destroy the usefulness of the bipartisan Tariff Commission, the establishment of whose effective powers we secured during this administration just 25 years after it was first advocated by President Theodore Roosevelt.
But if there are tariffs which are too high and result in damage to the American people, those tariffs can be readjusted by mere application to the Commission and the presentation of the evidence thereof. That tribunal is open to all the people.
That means that this tribunal, which Governor Roosevelt says he will destroy, has attended to practically every tariff application presented by American citizens.
Follow-through
not_applicable
Hoover lost the election; the pledge could not be tested in office. The flexible provision survived on the books but was superseded in practice by executive trade agreements after 1934.
Other positions on this issue
- Endorsement of the Smoot-Hawley tariff — Alfred E. Smith, 1932 directional_stance
- Revise the tariff downward through reciprocal trade agreements — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 directional_stance
- A "competitive" tariff set through a scientific Tariff Commission, with anti-log-rolling rules and a public counsel — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 specific_pledge
- Unconditional most-favored-nation treatment; no reciprocal bargains or preferences — Herbert Hoover, 1932 specific_pledge
- Maintain — and if necessary widen — the protective tariff; reject the Democratic 'competitive tariff for revenue' — Herbert Hoover, 1932 specific_pledge
- Protect the farmer against imports of livestock, dairy and farm products; keep non-competing goods on the free list — Alf Landon, 1936 directional_stance
1932-hoover-flexible-tariff-commission · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed