The Tariff Act of 1930 (codified at ), otherwise known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff or Hawley–Smoot Tariff, was an act implementing protectionist trade policies sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley and signed into law on June 17, 1930. The act raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods. 

The tariffs (this does not include duty-free imports – see "Tariff levels" below) under the act were the second-highest in the U.S. in 100 years, exceeded by a small margin by the Tariff of 1828. The Act and following retaliatory tariffs by America's trading partners helped reduce American exports and imports by more than half during the Depression. Although economists disagree by how much, the consensus view among economists and economic historians is that "The passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff exacerbated the Great Depression." 

In 1922, Congress passed the Fordney–McCumber Tariff act which increased tariffs on imports. 

The League of Nations' World Economic Conference met at Geneva in 1927, concluding in its final report: "the time has come to put an end to tariffs, and to move in the opposite direction." Vast debts and reparations could only be repaid through gold, services or goods; but the only items available on that scale were goods. However, many of the delegates' governments did the opposite, starting in 1928 when France passed a new tariff law and quota system.
What was The Tariff Act exactly?
The Tariff Act of 1930 (codified at ), otherwise known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff or Hawley–Smoot Tariff, was an act implementing protectionist trade policies