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While not wishing to sound like a Dorothy Parker poem, I'd have to say "more than a fart."

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was more a consequence of the onset of the Great Depression than an initial cause. But while the tariff might not have caused the Depression, it certainly did not make it any better. It provoked a storm of foreign retaliatory measures and came to stand as a symbol of the ‘beggar-thy-neighbor’ policies (policies designed to improve one’s own lot at the expense of that of others) of the 1930s. Such policies contributed to a drastic decline in international trade. For example, U.S. imports from Europe declined from a 1929 high of $1,334 million to just $390 million in 1932, while U.S. exports to Europe fell from $2,341 million in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. Overall, world trade declined by some 66% between 1929 and 1934. More generally, Smoot-Hawley did nothing to foster trust and cooperation among nations in either the political or economic realm during a perilous era in international relations.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was more a consequence of the onset of the Great Depression than an initial cause.

you nailed that one on the head. couple that with a few keynesian policies passed by fdr and some complete buffonnery on the part of the fed in the early 1930s, and the world economy suffered.

it is clear throug history that protecting jobs and taxing imports is a sure fire way to send the world enocomy, including that of the united states, into a downward spiral.

Such policies contributed to a drastic decline in international trade.

Nonsense.
You're wrongly attributing cause and effect.

In 1929, imports formed only 6 percent of the GNP, yet the Great Depression resulted in a 31 percent drop in GNP. It was the overall economic decline that led to the decline in imports, not vice-versa.

For example, U.S. imports from Europe declined from a 1929 high of $1,334 million to just $390 million in 1932, while U.S. exports to Europe fell from $2,341 million in 1929 to $784 million in 1932.

During the Great Depression, US economic output fell by about $30-40 billion. Its hard to see a couple billion dollar shift in trade causing or augmenting this.

Another thing to remember is that Smoot-Hawley really didn't change the overall tarriff picture very much. It gets a bad rap simply from being the last bill before the Depression. Smoot-Hawley certainly didn't raise tarriffs to any appreciable extent. That was done by the curency deflation in the face of the US tarriff regime of tarrifs in pennies per pound or per item, rather than pennies per dollar of value. If the cost of an item drops by 50%, while the tarriff on it remains a constant dollar value, it is the same as a huge increase, even though one was not intended.