[tcb] Interesting......
- From: Dan Martin <danandkatrinamartin@xxxxxxx>
- To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Michael R. Martin" <nosegunner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:55:23 -0600
I knew we have had a tariff on imported trucks. I remember seeing lots
of trucks at the port here in Houston without beds on them. I did not
know we started the tariff in 1963! Or that it had anything to do with
chickens!
>
>> we just got our OEM VW "Station Wagon" brochure
>> for 1971. Interestingly enough, the VW literature
>> consistently refers to the bus as a "station wagon."
>
>
> This was due to the "chicken tariff" on imported trucks imposed in
> 1963. The
> tariff was a U.S. retaliation over a trade dispute between the U.S. and
> Germany regarding U.S.chicken exports, and was later expanded to
> include all
> imported trucks. The 25 percent (!!!) import tariff on import trucks
> still
> exists to this day. Volkswagen avoided the tariff by reclassifying the
> passenger version of the Bus (and later the Vanagon and Eurovan) as a
> "station wagon." However the stiff tariff eventually forced them to
> abandon the actual "truck" market in the U.S., which is why German VW
> pickup
> trucks and delivery vans were never sold here after 1971. (The
> short-lived
> Rabbit pickup was U.S. made.) Meanwhile, Japanese companies skirted
> the
> tariff by importing their pickup trucks separately from the cargo beds
> as
> "incomplete vehicles," and bolting them together here.
>
> - Ron Salmon
> The Bus Depot, Inc.
> www.busdepot.com
> (215) 234-VWVW
Dan & Katrina Martin
1971 VW Bus
H.B.B.
T.C.B.
http://homepage.mac.com/danandkatrinamartin
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