One of the many, little-known particulars of the automotive industry is a trade tariff economists call The Chicken Tax. Way back in the swinging '60s, Europe aimed to protect its chicken farms from the juggernaut that was the American poultry industry by tripling the tax on US-bred lunch-fowl. In response, we gave Europe's truck builders a collective Bronx cheer in the form of a 25% import tax on foreign-built trucks. Now, our lessez-faire-wether friends in Washington want to reduce the tariff in a free-trade agreement with Thailand, one of the world's largest markets (on both the supply and demand sides) for pickups. If the agreement goes through, the thinking is, scads of low-priced pickups could spill athwart these shores, severly pressurizing Detroit's light-truck profit center. Edmunds is for it. What say you?
Should the US keep the Chicken Tax? [Blogs @ Edmunds]