<P> When the Republicans regained power after the war they restored the usual high rates , with the Fordney - McCumber Tariff of 1922 . When the Great Depression hit , international trade shrank drastically . The crisis baffled the GOP , and it tried to raise tariffs again with the Smoot - Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 . This time it backfired , as Canada , Britain , Germany , France and other industrial countries retaliated with their own tariffs and special , bilateral trade deals . American imports and exports both went into a tailspin . Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Dealers made promises about lowering tariffs on a reciprocal country - by - country basis ( which they did ) , hoping this would expand foreign trade ( which it did not . ) Frustrated , they gave much more attention to domestic remedies for the depression ; by 1936 the tariff issue had faded from politics , and the revenue it raised was small . In World War II both tariffs and reciprocity were insignificant compared to trade channeled through Lend Lease . </P>
in the 1930s what caused canada to respond by raising tax on goods imported from the united states
Great Depression