No pox on the Pontiac G8amino?

Posted March 25 2008 02:41 PM by Todd Lassa

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6238758/govern...ontiac-g8amino/

DETROIT - Here's something nobody -- myself included -- considered when Pontiac revealed the Holden Ute-based G8 ST at the New York show last week. Will the sport pickup truck be subject to the 25-percent chicken tax?

As far as the editorial "we" at Motor Trend can tell, the answer is "no." The Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement seems to remove the chicken tax from pickup trucks imported from Oz. The 25-percent tariff otherwise applies to all trucks imported into the United States, exempting Canada and Mexico, of course. It was our way of retaliating against Germany's tripling of import tariffs on chickens. The U.S. responded in 1963 by adding a 25-percent tariff on imported light trucks. Back then, that meant Volkswagen. By the early '80s, the tax helped prompt Toyota and Nissan to build compact pickups in U.S. factories, setting them up nicely for the full-size assaults from the Tundra and Titan.

It could've boosted the Pontiac sport truck's base price to nearly $40,000. While this issue came up back when news broke that GM was considering import of the Holden Ute under a U.S. nameplate, it apparently hasn't been raised since. And nobody outside of GM's legal department has had to consider the issue. I asked GM product tsar Bob Lutz in an e-mail whether he thought the sport truck would be subject to the 25-percent tax. If not, what's the exemption? "An excellent question!" he replied. "For which I have no answer!"

Others at General Motors had similar responses. That should tell you how long it's been since anyone has considered bringing a truck in from outside the North American Free Trade Agreement.

When I updated Lutz with our interpretation of how the Australia-U.S. trade agreement affects the Pontiac, he replied that "I'm sure we would've not done it had the chicken tax applied."

[Here's something nobody -- myself included -- considered when Pontiac revealed the Holden Ute-based G8 ST at the New York show last week. Will the sport pickup truck be subject to the 25-percent chicken tax?

Wow! Motor Trend thinks quite a bit of themselves. I know I'm not alone (especially on this site) when I say, "I thought of that." I also knew about the trade agreement. Perhaps Motor Trend needs some better reporters. I'm sure if they requested resumes from people here, they'd get more than a couple from people who was more foreward thinking than the above reporter.

No-one thought of it because they knew it wasn't.

This was resolved and reported as such when the new free-trade agreement with Australia was settled. That fact was published many times beginning quite a while back. How old is this snippet M/T just decided to publish? Must have been sitting in the files for some time.

This was resolved and reported as such when the new free-trade agreement with Australia was settled. That fact was published many times beginning quite a while back. How old is this snippet M/T just decided to publish? Must have been sitting in the files for some time.

Each of the presidential candidates have stated that they will be looking at all trade agreements that do not benefit US workers, my understanding is that it will include the Australian free trade agreement along with NAFTA.

Edited March 30, 200817 yr by Pontiac Custom-S

Each of the presidential candidates have stated that they will be looking at all trade agreements that do not benefit US workers, my understanding is that it will include the Australian free trade agreement along with NAFTA.

"looking at" doesn't mean much, does it?

Undoing any existing agreements (or laws for that matter) rarely happens.

Very little to be concerned with in that little tidbit.