2016 Postmortem

Tariffs were already high when the bill was passed, which is not the case today. Also, most economists agree that trade protectionism wasn't the cause of the Great Depression, it was monetary policy.

On the other hand, tariffs and "protectionism" has been a staple of US trade policy until the 1970s and ww were a fairly prosperous nation during that period.

Ha-Joon Chang chronicled how a similar economic plan turned South Korea into an economic powerhouse.

You can find lots of nations that built their wealth through protecting and investing in local industry. You won't find a lot that have removed all barriers to trade and somehow have become wealthy. China in particular is benefitting from open Western markets, but itself has barriers for foreign products so it can develop it's own capacity.

It's not like this is shocking information.