Tariffs are a means for one country to wrangle better trade terms with another country and to protect domestic manufacturing. Unfortunately, they don’t always deliver.

The notion of tariffs dates back to the first major law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1789 and has evolved over time.

In the 1930s, after the United States hiked tariffs as part of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 (which exacerbated the Great Depression), the French media reportedly called it a declaration of ...