More than 1,100 economists, including 14 Nobel Prize winners, have written a letter to President Donald Trump, along with Congress, warning against making the same trade mistakes that helped plunge America into the Great Depression. The 1,140 economists sent the letter Thursday amid a mounting international trade battle. Trump has imposed a number of tariffs, including on steel and aluminum imports, but has granted temporary reprieves to the European Union, Australia and a handful of other countries. “In 1930, 1,028 economists urged Congress to reject the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act,” the authors wrote, citing a trade law that many economists are convinced deepened the Great Depression. The letter warns that protectionist trade barriers erected by Trump and his withdrawal from critical international trade agreements will hurt the U.S. far more than they will help the nation.

Source: Huffington Post May 04, 2018 03:11 UTC