In the 18th and 19th centuries, many countries

In the 18th and 19th centuries, many countries primary source of income was import tariffs. Tariffs tended to be lowered as other sources of tax income like income taxes, payroll taxes, value-added taxes (VAT), property taxes, sales tax, etc. have been enacted. In the United States property taxes and sales tax have nearly always been reserved for state and local government income sources. Various Income Tax rates and schedules are also common in many states but tariffs are not. Tariffs in the U.S. can only be imposed only by the Federal government at a uniform rate and not by state or local governments.
Tariffs up to the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, were set by Congress with many hours of bickering and testimony. In 1934, the U.S. Congress, in a rare delegation of authority, passed the Reciprocal Tariff Act of 1934 which authorized the executive branch to negotiate bilateral tariff reduction agreements with other countries. The prevailing view then was that trade liberalization may help stimulate economic growth--much depressed by the Great Depression. However, no one country was willing to liberalize its tariff rates unilaterally. Between 1934 and 1945, the executive branch negotiated over 32 bilateral trade liberalization (reciprocal tariff reductions) agreements with other countries. The belief that low tariffs lead to a more prosperous country are now the predominant belief with some exceptions. Multilateralism is embodied in the seven tariff reduction rounds which occurred between 1948 and 1994. In each of these "rounds", all General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) members came together to negotiate mutually agreeable trade liberalization packages and reciprocal tariff rates. In the Uruguay round in 1994, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established to help establish uniform tariff rates.


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