1930年6月17日——美国1930年关税法签署生效

On June 17, 1930, then-President Herbert Hoover signed a tariff act, known as the Tariff Act of 1930 (hereinafter referred to as the 1930 Act), which has been controversial since it was first signed and then implemented. Some scholars argue that it "defended" the U.S. "monopoly doctrine", while others argue that it exacerbated the U.S. economic depression at the time and triggered a trade war worldwide. But objectively speaking, the introduction of this tariff act was far-reaching for the United States then and now. In addition, the implementation of the USITC's (United States International Trade Commission) 337 investigation is based on the Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

1930年6月17日，时任美国总统的赫伯特·胡佛签署了一部关税法，也就是为大家熟知的《1930年关税法》，这是一部自签署、实施以来就饱受争议的法律。有学者认为，它“捍卫”了美国的“大国主义”，但也有学者认为，它加剧了美国当时的经济萧条并引发了世界级贸易大战。但是，客观地说，这部关税法的出台无论对于当时还是现在的美国，都是影响深远的。另外，USITC(美国国际贸易委员会）的337调查正是基于这部法中的337条而实施开展的。

法案签署时的报纸报道

1

Basic facts of the 1930 Act

法律概况

The Tariff Act of 1930, known as the Smoot-Hawley Act, was named "Smoot-Hawley" because its sponsors were Reed Smoot, the then Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Willis Hawley, the then Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The purpose of the legislation was to raise import tariffs in order to increase the income of importation and to protect U.S. businesses and farmers.

1930年美国关税法，即《斯姆特-霍利法案》，因其发起人分别是时任参议院财政委员会主席的里德·斯姆特（Reed Smoot）和时任众议院筹款委员会主席的威利斯·霍利（Willis Hawley）而得名“斯姆特-霍利”。其立法目的是提高进口关税以保护美国企业和农民。

斯姆特和霍利

2

Historical background

立法背景

Herbert Hoover was sworn in as President of the United States in November 1928. At that time, the U.S. economy was prosperous as a whole and Hoover's speeches conducted during the election was full of ambition. The Wall Street Journal even reported : "the U.S. is on the eve of victory in the battle against poverty, and the slums are about to disappear in this country”.

1928年11月，赫伯特·胡佛正式宣誓就职美国总统。当时，美国经济一片向好，加上胡佛在竞选时雄心壮志的演说，当时《华尔街日报》甚至报道：“美国正在取得对于贫困战斗的胜利前夜，贫民窟即将在这个国家消失”。

胡佛总统

However, the Hoover administration was soon "slapped" on the face.

但是，很快地，胡佛政府就被“啪啪”打脸了。

Since October 1929, the New York Stock Exchange had frequently seen a wave of stock selling, from Black Thursday to Black Monday, people were selling their holdings regardless of the cost. Especially on October 29, the madness and cruelty of the market could hardly be described, until the close of the stock, an all-time record of 16.41 million shares traded had been created. It was the darkest day in the history of American securities, as well as the most influential and damaging economic event in the U.S. history, with effects spreading to Western countries and even the entire world.

自1929年10月开始，纽约证券交易所频现股票抛售浪潮，从黑色星期四到黑色星期一，人们都在不计成本地抛售所持有的股票。尤其是10月29日，那一天人们已经无法形容市场的疯狂和残酷，直到收盘创造了1641万股成交的历史记录。这是美国证券史上最黑暗的一天，是美国历史上影响最大、危害最深的经济事件，影响波及西方国家乃至整个世界。

经济大萧条中的等待救济的穷苦民众

Thereafter, the United States and the world entered a decade-long period of economic depression. During the Great Depression, besides the financial sector, agriculture was also hit hard. Although agricultural production of the U.S. rose sharply, prices fell dramatically. Farmers were full of grumbles, and they thought naively that it was due to the low tariffs  that their agricultural products hadn’t got well-protection. In order to please those farmer constituents, Smoot and Hawley then jointly introduced the bill, in which the agricultural tariffs had been raised to protect the interests of local farmers.

此后，美国和全球进入了长达10年的经济大萧条时期。在大萧条期间，受到重创的不仅仅是金融业，农业也受到了天大的打击。虽然，美国的农产品产量大幅提高，但是价格却一落千丈。农民怨声载道，他们天真地以为，那是关税太低无法保护本国的农产品。为了讨好农民选民，斯姆特和霍利就联合提出一个议案：提高农产品关税，保护本土农民的利益。

斯姆特发表演讲

However, this bill gradually deviated from its original purposes during the whole process from negotiation to the actual landing: Smoot’s intention didn’t include the raise of tariffs on industrial products at the same time, only agricultural products were in the consideration of tariffs increase to avoid the soaring of all prices, but other state legislators felt it unfair for those non-agricultural states to simply raise agricultural tariffs, thus the tariffs being raised as a whole were demanded by those legislators. Smoot-Hawley Act was finally passed in March 1930, in which 890 kinds of goods (out of 1125 kinds of goods involved in import tariffs totally) were designed with higher tariff rates.

但是，这个议案在商议到落地的整个过程画风逐渐走偏：斯姆特本意是在不提高工业产品关税的同时，只单纯为农产品增加关税，这样就能避免造成全体物价的飙升问题。但是，其他州的议员觉得仅提高农业关税对于非农业强州并不公平，便要求所有产品一起加税，所以当1930年3月《斯姆特-霍利法案》最终通过的时候，已经涉及到1125种商品的进口关税其中增加税收的就高达890种。

Once the bill passed, it gained opposition from many economists, a large number of whom called on President Hoover not to sign it. The CEOs of auto giant Ford and JP Morgan, among others, even went to the White House several times to try to convince the president. They were all aware that the disaster would emerge once it got signed. 

这个法案刚经通过，并遭到了诸多经济学家的反对，一大堆的经济学家呼吁胡佛总统不要签字。汽车巨头福特、JP摩根的首席执行官等人都多次到白宫去试图说服总统：这是一项糟糕透顶的法案，一旦签署就会是一场灾难。

But because of the political gamesmanship, the economists failed to pause the development of things and Hoover signed the bill anyway. 

但由于那些政治家的政治博弈，最后经济学家们未能阻止事情的进展，胡佛还是在法案上签了字。

3

The 1930 Act and the world

法案与世界格局

The high tariffs of the act have caused hold back from countries around the world and triggered counterattacks——a worldwide trade backlash has begun.Magic could only be contained by magic——the countries have begun to fight back with approaches like higher tariff barriers against the U.S. and bans on the entry of U.S. products.

这部法中高昂的关税使得世界各国都忍无可忍，纷纷发起反击，一场世界范围内的贸易反击战开始了。只有魔法才能打败魔法，各国纷纷开始用更高的对美关税壁垒、禁止美国产品入境等方式反击美国的做法。

讽刺1930关税法的漫画

Canada began the raising of tariffs as early as May 1930, with 30 percent tariffs added on 

16 major categories of good that U.S. exported to Canada. Afterwards, Britain together with other countries in the British Commonwealth joined the battle. All countries of Europe was forced to join this tariff war against the U.S.: France announced to turn away all U.S. domestic products from exporting into the land of France, while Italy and Spain countered with imported cars, Switzerland opted for a partial boycott. Later, even Mexico, Cuba, Australia and New Zealand joined in - and a global trade war broke out.

先是加拿大早在1930年5月就开始上调税率，将美国输入加拿大的16大类产品加关税30%。然后英国和英联邦国家也加入了这场斗争。随后，整个欧洲被迫卷入这场对美关税战：法国宣布将所有美国本土产品拒之门外。意大利和西班牙反击对象是进口汽车、瑞士选择部分抵制。后来就连墨西哥、古巴、澳大利亚、新西兰也都纷纷加入——全球贸易大战就此爆发。

讽刺贸易战的漫画

As the 1930 Act had been implemented for a year, Europe's total trade fell by 18 percent, while total industrial output fell by an average of 18 percent per year. By 1934, global trade had fallen by 66% and industrial output by 33%. The U.S. itself did not gain much: its own exports to Europe fell 67%, imports fell 70%, while domestic unemployment rose to a staggering 25.1% in 1933.

当关税法案实施一年后，欧洲的贸易总量下降18%，而工业总产值平均每年下降18%。截止1934年，全球贸易总量下降66%，工业总产值下降33%。而美国自己也没有得到多少好处：伤敌一千自损八百，美国自身对欧洲出口量下降67%，进口减少70%，而国内的失业率却高达1933年的惊人的25.1%。

The Great Depression consequently spread worldwide, that is why many scholars still associate the 1930 Tariff Act with the world economic crisis of that time.

这场全世界的性质的大衰退就此产生，这也是为什么许多学者至今仍将1930关税法和当时的世界经济危机紧密联系在一起的原因。

4

The 1930 Act of the day

法案的今天

After President Roosevelt took office, he made massive reforms in all aspects of the U.S. economy and introduced the New Deal, and the high percentage of tariffs provided for in the 1930 Tariff Act was drastically reduced. But at present, the Act still has a great influence on the international community, not from the formulation of tariff ratios, but from its famous "Section 337".

罗斯福总统在上台后对美国经济各方面均做出了大规模改革，推出了新政，1930关税法中规定的高关税比例也因为被大幅缩减而荡然无存了。但是对于今天来说，这部法案仍对国际有着巨大的影响力，但这种影响力并非来自于关税比例的制定，而是其著名的“337条款”。

337 investigation is named after Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930. It has been amended several times, and its implementation mechanism has evolved into a very strong customs IP protection mechanism, primarily to protect valid and enforceable U.S. patent rights against unlawful infringement of imported products. After nearly eighty years of dynamic development, the system has formed a certain path dependence by its own evolutionary logic, and to a certain extent has produced a lock-in effect. Therefore, it can be judged that the U.S. Section 337 implementation mechanism, which takes the protection of intellectual property rights at the border as its mission, will continue to exist and develop, and even has the possibility of being further strengthened.

“337条款”得名于美国的《1930年关税法》的第337节。它历经了数次修订，其实施机制亦随之逐渐发展成为一种非常强有力的海关知识产权保护机制，主要用以保护美国的有效和可执行的专利权免遭进口产品的不法侵害。经过近八十年的动态发展演进，该制度体系已经由其自身的演化逻辑而形成了一定的路径依赖，并在一定程度上产生了制度上的锁定（Lock-in）效应。因此，可以判断以知识产权边境保护为己任的美国337条款实施机制将会继续存在和发展，甚至还有获得进一步加强的可能性。

337调查文件

So far, global trade enterprises around the world are still scrupling about 337 investigations, because once they got investigated, the involved products’ exports to the U.S. will definitely be affected to varying degrees, and responding to 337 investigations and suits is a time-consuming and costly battle.

至今，世界各国的外贸企业对于337调查仍会有所顾忌，因为一旦遭到337调查，该产品的对美出口一定会受到不同程度的影响，并且应对337调查和应诉等又是一场耗时、耗力、耗钱的战役。

Whether from the original intent of the 1930 Tariff Act or the vitality of the 337 investigation system after its step-by-step evolution, modification, the 1930 Act is an act full of U.S. protectionism, great-power chauvinism, and trade unilateralism.

不论是从1930年关税法制定的初衷还是经过其一步步演变、修改，保留至今仍具活力的337调查制度，这部法律彻头彻尾就是一部“美国保护主义法”，充斥着美国“大国主义”、贸易单边主义的气息。

来源：互联网综合