Trade Policy & Negotiation Capability

1st century BC · around 2,100 years ago

Rome levied portoria customs duties at its provincial frontiers

Duties of roughly two to five per cent were collected on goods crossing internal frontiers between tax zones across the empire, a systematic tariff regime that funded the imperial treasury and shaped trade routes across the Mediterranean and beyond for centuries.

14th century · 726 years ago

Edward III banned woollen cloth imports to build up English manufacturing

Edward III took interventionist trade measures, including a prohibition on imported woollen cloth, in an attempt to develop domestic cloth manufacturing. It is among the earliest recorded uses of import restriction as industrial policy in England.

1489 · 537 years ago

Henry VII raised export duties on raw wool

From 1489 Henry VII increased duties on raw wool exports to encourage domestic processing rather than export of the raw material. Later Tudor monarchs, notably Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, extended the approach with subsidies, monopoly grants and industrial espionage to protect the wool industry.

1651 · 375 years ago

England restricted colonial trade to English ships under the Navigation Acts

Goods moving to and from English colonies had to travel on English or colonial vessels, a non-tariff restriction designed to build national shipping and naval strength that provoked wars with the Dutch and became a grievance behind later American independence.

1721 · 305 years ago

Robert Walpole introduced Britain's infant-industry protection package

Walpole raised tariffs on imported manufactures, subsidised exports, cut tariffs on imported industrial raw materials and abolished export duties on most manufactured goods. This marked a protectionist turning point in British policy and made Britain one of the first states to pursue large-scale infant-industry development.

1757 · 269 years ago

Qing China confined foreign maritime trade to a single port under the Canton System

Foreign merchants were restricted to trading through licensed Hong merchants at Canton under fixed duties and rigid rules, a non-tariff control regime that lasted nearly a century before the Opium Wars forced China's ports open to wider foreign commerce.

1789 · 237 years ago

United States Congress passed the Tariff Act of 1789 as a 'Second Declaration of Independence'

Signed on 4 July, the Act was described by newspapers as a second declaration of independence because it was the economic instrument intended to secure a sovereign United States. It illustrates the use of tariff policy as a tool of nation-building.

1790–1860 · 236 years ago

United States federal government adopted tariffs as its primary source of revenue

From 1790 import duties supplied roughly 90% of federal receipts, chosen because sales and income taxes were controversial, hard to enforce and costly to administer while imports were concentrated in a handful of ports. Tariffs were also less visible to the public, reducing political resistance. This revenue-driven era was the first of three phases of US trade policy.

1807–09 · 219 years ago

Thomas Jefferson imposed a complete embargo on maritime commerce

With Congressional support Jefferson embargoed maritime trade from December 1807 to March 1809, ostensibly to keep American ships and sailors out of the Anglo-French naval conflict. By mid-1808 the United States approached autarky, one of the most extreme peacetime interruptions of trade in its history; Irwin estimates a static welfare loss of about 5% of GDP.

1815 · 211 years ago

Britain enforced the Corn Laws on imported food and grain

The Corn Laws imposed tariffs and other restrictions on imported food to keep domestic corn prices high, embodying British mercantilism and the political power of landowners. They raised living costs and constrained growth in manufacturing by reducing disposable incomes. By 1820 Britain's average tariff on manufactured imports stood at 45–55%.

1828 · 198 years ago

United States Congress enacted the Tariff of Abominations, provoking South Carolina's secession threat

The 1828 tariff prompted South Carolina to threaten secession, a crisis resolved by the Compromise of 1833 which began a steady decline in duties. The episode showed how tariff-setting could become a constitutional and sectional crisis.

1832 · 194 years ago

South Carolina triggered the Nullification Crisis over a new federal tariff

Passage of a new tariff by Congress shortly before the federal elections outraged South Carolina, and civil war nearly resulted. The crisis is a leading example of tariff policy destabilising domestic constitutional order.

1842 · 184 years ago

Whig Party raised US tariffs, only for Democrats to reverse the rise in 1846

During Democratic dominance from 1837 to 1860 the pro-tariff Whigs held power for just two years, using them to raise duties in 1842; the increase was undone in 1846 once Democrats returned. Further reductions in 1846 and 1857 brought the average tariff below 20% by 1860 under the slogan 'a tariff for revenue only'.

1846 · 180 years ago

Britain repealed the Corn Laws

Parliament scrapped tariffs that had kept domestic grain prices high to protect landowners, a landmark act of unilateral liberalisation that split the governing party and set Britain on a path toward free trade that lasted until the First World War. Economic historians see the repeal as the decisive British turn to free trade; a 2021 study found it benefited the bottom 90% of income earners while reducing incomes of the top 10%.

1849 · 177 years ago

United Kingdom abolished the Navigation Acts after free traders won the public debate

The repeal of the Navigation Acts, alongside the abolition of customs duties on many manufactured goods, completed Britain's unilateral move to open trade. Most other large industrial powers retained protectionist regimes, with the United States and Bismarck's Germany moving in the opposite direction.

1860 · 166 years ago

Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Switzerland moved fully towards free trade on the Continent

Several smaller European states, and arguably Sweden and Belgium, had fully adopted free trade before 1860, even as larger continental powers remained protectionist. This shows liberalisation spread unevenly across Europe rather than following Britain uniformly.

1861 · 165 years ago

United States Congress passed the Morrill Tariff after Southern secession

Irwin argues the Morrill Tariff passed only because seceding Southern states' representatives had left Congress, and it was signed by the Democrat James Buchanan before Lincoln took office. He rejects the revisionist claim that the tariff triggered the Civil War, finding no evidence tariffs were a major cause.

1861–1932 · 165 years ago

Republican-dominated United States shifted tariffs to restriction rather than revenue at 40–50% rates

The Civil War moved political power from the export-oriented South to the manufacturing North, and Republicans raised average duties to 40–50%, where they remained for decades. Democrats managed reductions only in 1894 and 1913, both swiftly reversed. Irwin disputes the claim that these high tariffs made America an industrial power, estimating a cost of about 0.5% of GDP in the mid-1870s.

1890 · 136 years ago

The United States passed the McKinley Tariff Act

Average duties on dutiable imports rose to around half their value, among the highest levels in the country's history, reflecting a protectionist consensus that dominated American tariff policy for much of the late nineteenth century.

June 1903 · 123 years ago

Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marquess of Lansdowne defended fiscal retaliation against high-tariff and dumping states

In a House of Lords speech Lansdowne argued for threatening retaliatory duties against countries with high tariffs and subsidised 'premium products', an early articulation of anti-dumping retaliation. His 'gun a little bigger than everyone else's' image became the 'Big Revolver' slogan and marked the Liberal Unionists' slide towards protectionism.

1905 · 121 years ago

Chilean protesters staged the 1905 meat riots against cattle import tariffs

Tariffs on cattle imported from Argentina provoked violent social unrest in Chile. The episode illustrates how consumer-facing import duties can ignite domestic disorder.

1930 · 96 years ago

The United States enacted the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

The Tariff Act of 1930 raised duties on over 20,000 imported goods just as the Depression deepened, lifting average duties on dutiable imports from about 40% to 47%, with deflation pushing the effective rate near 60% by 1932. Coming as the League of Nations sought a global 'tariff truce', it was seen as hostile and unilateral, provoking retaliation from trading partners and encouraging discriminatory trading blocs amid a collapse in world trade. Economists dispute its role in the Depression's depth, but 'Smoot-Hawley' became synonymous with disastrous policymaking and a lasting cautionary example against protectionism in a downturn.

• Congress shifted tariff-setting power toward the president

1932 · 94 years ago

Britain abandoned free trade and reintroduced large-scale tariffs

Responding to the Great Depression, Britain temporarily set aside its long-standing free-trade regime and imposed extensive tariffs. This ended nearly a century of British unilateral openness dating from the repeal of the Corn Laws.

1934–2016 · 92 years ago

United States turned trade policy towards reciprocal trade agreements

The Democratic victory in the 1932 election ended Republican dominance and shifted influence to export-oriented Southern interests, making negotiated reciprocity the central aim of trade policy and driving average tariffs sharply down. From the early 1950s to the early 1990s a bipartisan Cold War consensus on liberalisation prevailed, with Republicans also backing open trade.

1962 · 64 years ago

The European Economic Community adopted variable import levies under the Common Agricultural Policy

Import charges that moved automatically with world price changes kept domestic farm prices stable regardless of global markets, a sophisticated non-tariff mechanism that shielded European agriculture and became one of the most disputed features of the bloc's trade policy for decades.

1981 · 45 years ago

The United States and Japan agreed voluntary export restraints on automobiles

Tokyo accepted a self-imposed quota on car shipments to the American market to defuse pressure for formal US tariffs, an early example of a negotiated non-tariff quantitative restraint used in place of a straightforward duty.

July 2026 · last month

Nigeria began implementing its 2026 tariff amendments

Nigeria Customs Service started applying the Fiscal Policy Measures and Tariff Amendments, which cut import duties on 127 tariff lines supporting critical sectors while keeping effective rates near 70% for wheat flour and 50% for rice and cement to shield local producers.

June 2026 · 2 months ago

The World Trade Organization published its 2026 World Tariff Profiles

The annual reference compiled applied and bound tariff rates across the WTO membership, providing the benchmark dataset that governments and traders use to track how far actual duties have moved from members' negotiated ceilings during a year of rising trade friction.

May 2026 · 3 months ago

UNCTAD found non-tariff measures now cost traders more than tariffs

The trade body's Global Trade Update found regulations, standards and product requirements impose higher export costs than customs duties for 88% of countries, with least-developed countries losing about 10% of potential exports to G20 markets through inability to meet the requirements.

• Tariff levels rose fastest for the poorest countries

February 2026 · 6 months ago

Indonesia signed a reciprocal trade deal cutting its US tariff to 19%

The agreement lowered the rate from a threatened 32%, exempted palm oil and other key commodities entirely, and introduced a tariff-rate quota that can reduce textile duties to zero within set volumes once verification requirements are met.

January 2026 · 7 months ago

African Union member states began the Category B tariff phase-down under AfCFTA

The continental free trade area moved to eliminate duties on a further slice of the 90% of tariff lines classed as non-sensitive, advancing a schedule that leaves longer phase-in periods for sensitive products and least-developed members.

• Ethiopia began applying its AfCFTA tariff concessions

January 2026 · 7 months ago

China imposed an extra 55% tariff on above-quota beef imports

The additional duty, set to run for three years, applies once shipments from suppliers including Brazil and the United States exceed agreed quota volumes, part of Beijing's use of tariff-rate quotas to manage politically sensitive agricultural imports.

2026

European Union starts its carbon border-adjustment mechanism

The EU mechanism is intended to level the playing field between European producers subject to carbon pricing and foreign firms that are not. It represents the emergence of climate policy as a basis for border measures within tariff regimes.

October 2025 · 10 months ago

Vietnam settled a tariff deal with a 20% baseline rate

The agreement replaced a threatened 46% levy but added a 40% duty on goods trans-shipped through Vietnam from third countries, a measure aimed at exports with significant Chinese content routed through Vietnamese ports to avoid higher duties.

• Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines reached similar tariff frameworks

September 2025 · 11 months ago

India cut domestic taxes to offset the impact of US tariffs

New Delhi announced reductions in goods and services tax on a wide range of consumer items to stimulate domestic demand, while pushing exporters to redirect pharmaceutical shipments toward Russia, Brazil and other markets less exposed to US duties.

April 2025 · 1 year ago

Donald Trump announced a 10% base tariff on all imports plus large increases

The announcement raised the US trade-weighted average tariff from about 2% to an estimated 24%, the highest level in over a century and above the peak under Smoot–Hawley. It represented the sharpest single reversal of American trade openness since the 1930s.

2025 · 1 year ago

Argentina remained one of the few countries levying export taxes

By 2025 Argentina was among a small minority of states still applying taxes on exports rather than only on imports. It illustrates the survival of an instrument largely abandoned elsewhere.

2025 · last year

Brazil posted record exports despite US tariff pressure

Total exports rose by $11.6 billion over 2024 even as shipments to the United States fell by $2.6 billion, as exporters redirected soybeans, beef and manufactured goods toward China and other markets less affected by the new duties.

Late 2025 · 9 months ago

China reversed export controls on rare earths

The commerce ministry lifted restrictions on rare-earth shipments and suspended retaliatory tariffs of 15 to 24% on selected US imports, including superhard materials and lithium-battery components, as part of a wider de-escalation in the trade dispute with Washington.

2024 · 2 years ago

Switzerland abolished tariffs on industrial imports

Switzerland removed customs duties on industrial products entering the country. Using 2016 trade figures the Swiss government estimated annual economic benefits of 860 million CHF.

2019 · 7 years ago

Over 3,500 US economists signed the Economists' Statement on Carbon Dividends

The statement, endorsed by 45 Nobel laureates and former Federal Reserve chairmen, advocated a border carbon adjustment system to prevent carbon leakage and support energy-efficient American firms. It gave professional legitimacy to climate-linked border measures.

2018 · 8 years ago

Donald Trump imposed tariffs on solar panels, washing machines, steel and aluminium

In January 2018 tariffs of 30–50% were applied to solar panels and washing machines, followed in March by duties on steel (25%) and aluminium (10%) from most countries, covering an estimated 4.1% of US imports according to Morgan Stanley. In June 2018 the metals tariffs were extended to the European Union, Canada and Mexico, ending the post-war bipartisan liberalisation consensus.

2018 · 8 years ago

The United States imposed Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods

Duties on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imports, justified on grounds of unfair technology transfer practices, triggered Chinese retaliation and a multi-year tariff war that reshaped supply chains and became the reference point for the tariff escalation of the mid-2020s.

• The two sides signed a partial truce

2017 · 9 years ago

India imposed tariffs under the 'Make in India' programme

From 2017 India levied tariffs on a range of electronic products and 'non-essential items' to stimulate and protect domestic manufacturing and to contain current account deficits. It marked a renewed use of protective duties by a large emerging economy.

2015 · 11 years ago

Armenia joined the Eurasian Economic Union and its common customs regime

Accession gave Armenia largely tariff-free trade within the Eurasian Customs Union while requiring higher tariffs on third-country goods, initially set at 0–10% and rising, especially on agricultural products. Armenia committed to the EAEU common external tariff but was permitted to apply non-EAEU rates to certain goods, including meat, dairy, cereals and oils, until 2022.

2013 · 13 years ago

Russian Federation adopted more protectionist measures than any other country

In 2013 Russia introduced more protectionist trade measures than any other state, making it the world leader in protectionism that year. It illustrates the persistence of non-tariff and tariff barriers among major economies in the post-WTO era.

2003 · 23 years ago

Armenia joined the WTO and gained Most Favoured Nation status

WTO accession bound Armenia into the multilateral tariff framework and secured MFN treatment for its exports. It preceded the country's later shift into a Russian-led customs union.

2002 · 24 years ago

George W. Bush imposed tariffs of 8–30% on over 170 steel products

The 2002 steel safeguard duties covered more than 170 product lines at rates from 8 to 30 per cent. A 2025 study examined their effects, making them a benchmark case in the empirical literature on protection.

1999 · 27 years ago

Contracting parties to the Revised Kyoto Convention codified the 'free zone' as outside the customs territory

The 1999 Revised Kyoto Convention defined a free zone as part of a party's territory where introduced goods are generally treated as outside the customs territory for import duties and taxes. The definition underpins the international legal architecture of free-trade and export-processing zones.

1994 · 32 years ago

The Uruguay Round agreements created binding rules on technical and health standards as trade barriers

The Agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade and on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures required that product standards and health regulations be based on science and applied without unnecessary restriction, giving non-tariff measures a legal discipline comparable to that already applied to tariffs.

1993 · 33 years ago

United States Congress voted on NAFTA, after which Democratic support for liberalisation fell

The NAFTA vote marked the point at which the two major US parties effectively reversed their historic positions on trade. The shift reflected regional realignment, as the South became Republican and the Northeast Democratic, leaving regional trade preferences intact but reassigned between parties.

1992 · 34 years ago

Armenia established its own customs service after Soviet dissolution

Armenia created a national customs administration in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the institutional prerequisite for an independent tariff regime. It later joined the WTO in 2003, gaining Most Favoured Nation status.