The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (sometimes known as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act) was an act signe into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. In the United States 1,028 economists signed petition against this legislation, and after it was passed many countries retaliated with their own increased tariffs on U.S. goods, and American exports and imports plunged by more than half. In the opinion of some economists Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was responsible for the severity of the Great Depression, for example according to The Economist, the Smoot-Hawley tariff act turned a stock market collapse into a long Depression. Although this can be debatable, a widely accepted statement is that the tariff certainly did not help the economic situation in America.