The chicken tax - Washington Examiner
Ever wonder why the biggest market for pick-up trucks — that is, the U. S. — has so few trucks available. Yes, there are the big brands — mostly made by the Big Three. But smaller brands and smaller trucks are surprisingly reticent about cashing in on the most lucrative (highest profit margin per vehicle) segment of the American automobile market. It was a retaliatory measure directed at France and West Germany, which had imposed tariffs on the importation of American chicken. The measure hit back with tariffs on potato starch, brandy and light trucks, with the object of making all of them about 25 percent more expensive to import and therefore less profitable to sell here. The tariff mostly affects foreign-brand (as well as foreign-made) medium and compact-sized models like the Toyota HiLux, which is smaller than the Tundra Toyota sells here and also the Mitsubishi Triton, the Mazda B-Series and the new VW Amarok. The cloistered market is less competitive and less innovative as a result. Compact trucks are big all over the world — Toyota, for instance, has sold more than 16 million HiLuxes. Some foreign manufacturers have taken the radical step of moving operations here. Source: www.washingtonexaminer.com
