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Posted on 10/03/2009 12:44:33 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
Logic Takes a Back Seat -- and Windows, as Auto Maker Plays Tariff Games
BALTIMORE -- Several times a month, Transit Connect vans from a Ford Motor Co. factory in Turkey roll off a ship here shiny and new, rear side windows gleaming, back seats firmly bolted to the floor.
Their first stop in America is a low-slung, brick warehouse where those same windows, never squeegeed at a gas station, and seats, never touched by human backsides, are promptly ripped out.
The fabric is shredded, the steel parts are broken down, and everything is sent off along with the glass to be recycled.
Why all the fuss and feathers? Blame the "chicken tax."
The seats and windows are but dressing to help Ford navigate the wreckage of a 46-year-old trade spat. In the early 1960s, Europe put high tariffs on imported chicken, taking aim at rising U.S. sales to West Germany. President Johnson retaliated in 1963, in part by targeting German-made Volkswagens with a tax on imports of foreign-made trucks and commercial vans.
The 1960s went the way of love beads and sitar records, but the chicken tax never died. Europe still has a tariff on imports of U.S. chicken, and the U.S. still hits delivery vans imported from overseas with a 25% tariff. American companies have to pay, too, which puts Ford in the weird position of circumventing U.S. trade rules that for years have protected U.S. auto makers' market for trucks.
The company's wiggle room comes from the process of defining a delivery van. Customs officials check a bunch of features to determine whether a vehicle's primary purpose might be to move people instead. Since cargo doesn't need seats with seat belts or to look out the window, those items are on the list.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I nthink so. They tried to remove it a couple of years ago but I think they devoted the fund for internet in schools or something
“Hilarious.”
Government.
OMG! I remember that!
“Aren’t we still paying some tax on our phone bills meant to help fund the Spanish-American War?”
I thought they were going to eliminate that. I once asked a Qwest billing agent what all the extra items were on my bill and she told me she couldn’t answer that.
I agree with you that 0bummer is now trying to dazzle us with BS.
vans from a Ford Motor Co. factory in TurkeyHere's an idea -- build the vans in the US.
I was kind of shocked a few years back to learn that there was a very active restoration/collector thing for the Brat...ever since then I've wanted one too.
Here’s a better idea: get the government out of the auto/truck business.
The described phenomenon has to do with trade protectionism, which is a stupid holdover and anti-conservative. Obviously the thing to do is get rid of those barriers. That will however result (in the short term) in the exporting of manufacturing jobs to the lowest cost locations, which has been happening anyway. Pursuit of lower costs led to mass-production by unskilled or semi-skilled labor at the expense of individual craftsmen.
Bi-Racial Attack Vehicle. LOL
I saw one of those just 3 weeks ago.
Taxes are like zombies, they cannot be killed.
Only took a 90 years for the telephone tax to fund the Spanish American war to end.
yay, war is over!
Ford says some parts of my Mustang seats are made from recycled material.
In the 80’s there was an SUV tarrif on japanese imports. Isuzu imported the trooper without a backseat which allowed to avoid the tariff. The dealers offered the rear seat as a local option.
The padding inside trunks looks like it might be made from that stuff too.
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