Chicken Tax

[Stephen Biko]

Ever wonder why there are no other 2-door SUVs in the US? That is, except for the Evoque which appears to be inexplicably priced at least $5K more than the 4-door version.

Well, it is because of the Chicken Tax which is a 25% tarrif left over from the cold war. It isn't a problem for domestic manufacturers, but without the competition from imports (and there are 2-door SUVs out there, toyota/lexus has one) they aren't motivated to differentiate.

I searched the entire site here and saw only one oblique mention of the chicken tax, so I'm thinking hardly anyone knows about it. I've owned my VX for way more than 10 years and I didn't find out about it until recently. This has been today's public service announcement.

[ahdoman]

That's interesting. In a former life I was an import broker and we were always trying to find loop holes in the U.S. customs documentation. All of the imported trucks used to come in to the country without beds on them to circumvent duties. The beds were then installed in the states.