Explainer: A history of US tariffs
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tariffs have dominated the first few months of President Trump’s second term. But where did he get the idea from? Ben Carter spoke to Douglas Irwin, professor of economics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the US.
This is part of a new mini-series called the The Briefing Room Explainers. They’re short versions of previous episodes of the Briefing Room.
Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producer: Ben Carter Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.1 | Hello, David here with a new series of explainers from the briefing room. |
| 0:09.1 | In today's podcast, we look at the history of tariffs, something that's dominated the first |
| 0:13.9 | few months of President Trump's second term. |
| 0:17.0 | Where did he get the idea from? |
| 0:19.7 | Ben Carter spoke to Douglas Irwin, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the United States. |
| 0:28.9 | Throughout his political career, Donald Trump hasn't had many kind words for his predecessors and rivals. |
| 0:34.7 | Sleepy Joe Biden. Quote, Cheaton Obama. |
| 0:37.9 | Crooked Hillary, she is a crooked one. |
| 0:40.9 | These are just a few he's criticized over the years. |
| 0:44.1 | But if you listen to Trump's second inauguration speech in January, |
| 0:47.8 | you might have been surprised to hear him waxing lyrical about one former president. |
| 0:52.0 | We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should |
| 1:01.6 | be and where it belongs. |
| 1:04.1 | President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. |
| 1:14.1 | He was a natural businessman. William McKinley was a Republican politician from the state of Ohio, and he represented Ohio in the House of |
| 1:19.2 | Representatives for many years, where he's chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, author of |
| 1:24.1 | the McKinley tariff, but he later, in the election of 1896, became president of the United States |
| 1:29.5 | until he was assassinated in 2001. |
| 1:32.9 | The McKinley Tariff came into law in October 1890. |
| 1:37.5 | Great Britain was an industrial powerhouse, and the U.S. was importing our iron and steel. |
| 1:42.5 | It was also importing raw materials from Canada. |
... |
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