FCA Proposes a Merger with Renault

wilber1 wrote:


Your tariffs are your issue but you should understand that they cost you money because not only do they restrict imports, they allow manufacturers to maintain higher prices, particularly when they use non union labour in right to work states. I doubt it is cheaper to build cars in Europe than it is in Alabama, yet the tariff applies to European build vehicles as well.

The bottom line is there will be no trade deals in autos as long as the Chicken tax is in place.

Well we kind of want to restrict imports because we don't want a trade deficit(which was over $600B in 2018) like we have with many countries that do not have the same regulations and red tape that we do. If we eliminate all tariffs on vehicles, then we would end up like Australia where all of the manufacturers, even the domestic ones, move production out of the country because it is cheaper to build elsewhere. Did vehicles prices fall in Australia (like you claim they will here) when the tariffs were removed and production moved to out of the country? NO!

While the tax does restrict trucks made overseas, it does not restrict them from being sold here or building a factory here if they think their product can sell. The chicken tax did not restrict VW, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu, Suzuki, or Mitsubishi from selling trucks. They sold trucks for many years in the US, but most did not sell full size trucks like we wanted and were pulled just like every vehicle that doesn't sell well.

Most of the mid-sized trucks today built in countries like Thailand, Brazil, or Indonesia, not Europe so I am not sure why Europe is mentioned here.

Also, you do know it is illegal in the US for manufacturers to collude with each other to keep prices high, and you would have to be living under a rock if you said the US truck market is not competitive. From midsize to HDs, we have more pickup truck models to choose from than any other market in the world. I am not sure how you can say that the one of the worlds largest(if not the largest) pickup truck market with the worlds largest selection of different models is not competitive.