What was the hawley-smoot tariff act designed to do?

hawley-smoot tariff act introduced new tariffs for 900 import items from foreign countries and increased the already high import tariff level from 40% to 48%.

This increase was felt badly by the manufacturing and the commerce sector in both USA and Europe and worsened the Great Depression too.

It was also a reason behind the Europe's struggling economies and the beginning of the 2nd world war.