Le protectionnisme, a mauvaise presse. Pourtant, ses critiques n'ont guère plus de fondements que l'apologie du libre-échange. Le protectionnisme tout comme son opposé sont porteurs de mythes : « le protectionnisme est synonyme de guerre », « l'ouverture des frontières enrichit », …
Abstract The United States were a protectionist country from the Civil War to 1934, except under the Wilson presidency. High tariffs were supposed to protect American workers from the competition of imports from low-wages countries. This papers charts the main features of protective laws, then provides a legislative history of the highly protective Hawley-Smoot tariff, and assesses its macroe- conomic impact. It is debatable whether votes for or again the tariff depended more on partisan affiliation or on the economic features of the constituencies. Hawley-Smoot had but a low direct macroeconomic impact, since the share of imports in the American GNP was still low in 1930. On the other hand, by contributing to the decline of world trade, Hawley-Smoot may have had a negative effect on the international monetary and financial system.