Svenskt tullskydd. En studie av svensk protektionism under trettiotalet.

This paper attempts to study the Swedish tariffs during the interwar period in order to asses the level of protectionism in Swedish tariff policy during the period. It is foremost the nominal tariffs that are studied, however an estimate of the effective rate of protection of the tariffs is also calculated for a number of goods. In order to asses the level of protectionism, the Swedish tariffs are also compared with Finnish tariff levels during the interwar period. The sample of Swedish tariffs that have been studied in this paper include the fifteen most important kinds of import goods and the fifteen most important kinds of export goods. The nominal tariff of each kind of goods have been weighted by their share of the total import value. The Swedish specific tariffs did not change much during the interwar period except for a few goods such as petroleum, coffee and automobiles. The fluctuation in nominal tariffs were in most cases the result of the steep fall in prices during the period. Compared to the Finnish tariffs, the Swedish tariffs seem to have been generally lower, especially in agricultural goods in which the Swedish tariffs are surprisingly immobile during the period. This paper finds that the Swedish tariff policy during the interwar period were inactive and relatively free-market oriented