Tariffs were very strong American worker wage protection, HENCE corporations hate tariffs.

[pampango]

8. Yes the RTAA was FDR's first step in reversing high tariffs followed by GATT and the ITO.

First of all, not only are you falsely implying that the article you excerpted above is somehow arguing against the imposition of new tariffs (it's not), you apparently were unaware that the article's author is actually completely opposed to today's so-called "free trade" agreements.

I did not claim anything for the article other than that it makes the case that getting rid of high tariffs was a progressive victory. And that corporations thrived under high tariffs then at the expense of the working class.

FDR only wanted to lower tariff on imports on the sole condition that corresponding partner nations lower their tariffs on American exports as well ...

Which is quite different from the republican policy of unilaterally raising tariffs which he was starting to reverse. He had campaigned against those republican high tariffs in 1932 and the RTAA was his first move to reverse them.

As you know FDR's plan for the post-WWII world was for international organizations to govern international politics (the UN), finance (the IMF and World Bank) and trade (the ITO and GATT). He wanted to make it more difficult for countries to unilaterally raise tariffs as republicans had done in the 1920's.

Therefore, FDR's trade policy was the opposite of today's free trade agreements ...

FDR believed in the value of trade. He believed in lowering tariffs not raising them. He believed that multilateral governance of trade would make it difficult for countries to unilaterally raise tariffs.

How far would FDR have gone in supporting lower tariffs? I don't know. He considered high tariffs to be isolationist republican policy because that's what came before him. Perhaps he would have reversed his position in time.

It certainly seems that he believed that domestic policies were more important than trade in improving living standards. Empowering unions, raising taxes on the rich, making the safety net better, tighter corporate regulation government spending to boost employment - all liberal domestic policies that made life better for American workers. This is the same combination of liberal domestic policies and trade that progressive countries follow today.