A four-year economic slump has confirmed the end of decades of dizzying growth which meant that one of smallest countries in Europe country, perched on top of the Pyrenees, could survive mainly off a modest tariff on imports.
In 1894, Congress enacted a small income tax (a 2-percent tax on incomes exceeding $4,000 and affecting only about 2percentt of Americans) as part of a modest tariff reduction.
It was, however, a notably modest tariff: just $1 per bus per bus stop.
By blanketing the lower end of the market with such variety, Chuang has fended off challenges from rivals, even as Indonesia opened its chocolate market, imposing a modest 5% tariff on imports.
The Commerce Department has already imposed modest tariffs on Chinese-made silicon cells based on a preliminary finding of improper subsidies.
The president's rejection of this plea, combined with his embrace of more modest tariffs, is likely to strike those wooed steelworkers as a betrayal.
In June, the European Union imposed modest tariffs of 11.8 percent on solar panels from China, but those are set to rise to 47.6 percent in August if Beijing does not stop what the Europeans say is dumping.
Given his administration's myriad political problems, it is unlikely to be renewed, even if his party manages to hold onto both houses of Congress in the autumn mid-term elections.The collapse will probably be blamed on America, which has been pushing for bold action on agricultural tariffs, and resisting a modest compromise deal that includes caps on its own agricultural subsidies.
But because these negotiated ceilings are so much higher than the tariffs countries actually impose, even quite big cuts can make only a modest difference to trade.In rich countries, for example, the farm tariffs actually imposed would have fallen from 15% on average to 11%, according to the two economists.
India wanted the right to raise farm tariffs far above agreed ceilings in response to a modest increase in imports.
Since such agreements are becoming commonplace, and since South Korea chose a modest and distant trading partner, Chile, for its first foray into tariff-free trade, it would be easy to dismiss the treaty's importance to the rest of Asia.
