[tcb] Re: Interesting......
- From: "Ronnie Hughes" <y4s6wd5@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 06:51:59 -0600
I also remember seeing Toyota pick-ups lined up in Long Beach with no truck
beds. Next door to where I worked at the time there was a shop that
installed pick-up beds. I would have guessed the tariff started much later
though because you see allot more split cab pick-ups for sale on the Samba
than bay windows. But, I guess splitty's were sold in the US for over twice
as long.
Rust repairs still underway, one dog leg to go.
Ronnie "Pedro the body man" Hughes
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Martin" <danandkatrinamartin@xxxxxxx>
To: <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Michael R. Martin" <nosegunner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 7:55 PM
Subject: [tcb] Interesting......
>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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