After 'chicken tax,' a flood of foreign trucks? - Automotive News
WASHINGTON -- In the background of the free-trade debate that has raged in Washington this summer, a sacred cow of U. S. auto and trade policy is under threat. The 25 percent tariff imposed on imported pickups and commercial vans, known as the "chicken tax," stands to be significantly rolled back through big-ticket trade deals being hammered out with Pacific Rim nations and the European Union. With the legislative pieces now in place, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership are closer to becoming reality. The Pacific Rim deal seeks to create a 12-nation free-trade bloc encompassing some 40 percent of the world's economy. The EU deal would lower trade barriers and seeks to align regulations between the U. S. and EU. Both would remove the chicken tax. "It has provided a competitive advantage for the domestic pickup producers," says Daniel Ikenson, an economist and trade expert at the Cato Institute, a Washington pro-business think tank. After months of heated debate, Congress passed a bill last week that would give President Barack Obama authority to negotiate and send free-trade agreements to Congress for an up-or-down vote, free of amendments. Source: www.autonews.com
