Foreign discrimination against US exports also became more pronounced in the 1890s, adding to concerns about whether American goods were treated fairly in foreign markets. Over that decade, Germany concluded many bilateral trade agreements that included tariff concessions that were not extended to the United States. France’s Meline tariff in 1892 created a two-tiered, maximum-minimum schedule of import duties; US goods were subject to the maximum duties because the two countries did not have a trade agreement. And countries of the British Empire began granting preferences to one another. In
...more
