April 7, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: Following the Second World War, the United States reached out to countries, friends and former foes alike, to help them rebuild their countries and thus the international trade and economic system. In doing so we made long-term friends and future allies. The Marshall Fund was one of those important instruments.
After graduating from the University of Virginia, I went to Europe and spent the better part of a year in Germany working for a Munich surveying company, in large part to learn German. I bonded with my colleagues, as the Germans were impressed that a young American would want to be part of them. Many remembered what we had done in the aftermath of the war.
When I was back in this country, I earned a graduate degree at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). There I studied international trade and economics. Things like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), established in 1948, which would in 1995 become the World Trade Organization. A primary goal of these organizations was to reduce tariffs and expand international trade and economic cooperation.
In April 2025, President Trump announced tariffs on imports from countries throughout the world. These included tariffs of 40-50% on some of the poorest countries in the world. Our friends and allies in Europe and Asia got hit with significant tariffs. Many of these countries have reacted with plans for retaliatory tariffs. Remember the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 and what would follow in the 1930s?
Stock markets around the world tanked following Trump’s announcement. Economists have warned that prices to U.S. households will significantly increase and even warned of a recession. And some U.S. businesses will see their sales abroad fall because of reciprocal tariffs. Wonder if I would be welcomed in Germany today. DON HASFURTHER Lexington
