<P> In 1896, the GOP pledged platform pledged to "renew and emphasize our allegiance to the policy of protection, as the bulwark of American industrial independence, and the foundation of development and prosperity . This true American policy taxes foreign products and encourages home industry . It puts the burden of revenue on foreign goods; it secures the American market for the American producer . It upholds the American standard of wages for the American workingman". </P> <P> The protectionist period was the golden age of American industry, when America's economic performance surpassed the rest of the world by the greatest margin . It was the era in which the U.S. transformed itself from a agricultural backwater into the greatest economic power in the history of the world . </P> <P> It was only after the Second World War that the U.S. liberalized its trade (although not as unequivocally as Britain did in the midnineteenth century). </P> <P> In the colonial era, before 1775, nearly every colony levied its own tariffs, usually with lower rates for British products . There were taxes on ships (on a tonnage basis), import taxes on slaves, export taxes on tobacco, and import taxes on alcoholic beverages . The London government insisted on a policy of mercantilism whereby only British ships could trade in the colonies . In defiance, some American merchants engaged in smuggling . </P>

What is the import tariff in the united states