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This reminds me of the Subaru BRAT in the early '80s. There was a 25% tarrif on imported pickups. So Subaru added two plastic jump seats in the back of the BRAT
by geocrasher 5y ago
This reminds me of the Subaru BRAT in the early '80s. There was a 25% tarrif on imported pickups. So Subaru added two plastic jump seats in the back of the BRAT, even making them face backwards. No seat belts as I recall just handles. They weren't even really intended to be used. They were just cheap plastic. But they served the purpose of making the vehicle a four-seater car instead of a pickup, with only a 2.5% tarrif.
Tarrif averted, thousands sold!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_BRAT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_BRAT
- hedgehog 5y agoThis kind of thing is apparently pretty common. The two that I know of are shoes -> slippers by adding fabric to the bottom and European manufactured vans being imported to the US as passenger vehicles and then converted to cargo after arrival.
- bko 5y agoThat's fascinating. I remember hearing there about a giant book on import taxes on apparel with various definitions. For instance, "sandals" may be taxed X but "open toed shoes" may be taxed Y. Apparently these rates drive fashion trends to an incredible degree where even small modifications to a product could totally change the economics.
- eli 5y agoThere's a famous example that Converse All Stars included a very thin fuzzy lining along the outside of the soles so that they could qualify under the "slipper" tax instead of the higher "sneaker" tax.
- matsur 5y agoSaid giant book: https://hts.usitc.gov/current https://hts.usitc.gov/current
- bko 5y agoThe legends are true. The differences could be huge > Footwear with open toes or open heels; footwear of the slip-on type, that is held to the foot without the use of laces or buckles or other fasteners, the foregoing except footwear of subheading 6402.99.33 and except footwear having a foxing or a foxing-like band wholly or almost wholly of rubber or plastics applied or molded at the sole and overlapping the upper: >> Having outer soles with textile materials having the greatest surface area in contact with the ground, but not taken into account under the terms of additional U.S. note 5 to this chapter 12.5% >> Other 37.5% > Sandals and similar footwear of plastics, produced in one piece by molding. 3%
- albatross13 5y agoLife uh...finds a way.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- HeavenFox 5y agoThere's also the Ford vs Chicken Tax; basically U.S. import tariff for passenger van is 2.5% and cargo van is 25%, so Ford, which manufactured their Transit van in Turkey, installed seats in factory and stripped the seats once they arrived in the U.S. Now looks like they are in trouble for this scheme. https://jalopnik.com/ford-faces-potential-1-3-billion-fine-for-skirting-chi-1847028810 https://jalopnik.com/ford-faces-potential-1-3-billion-fine-f... (And why it's called Chicken Tax is another fascinating story...)
- Pasorrijer 5y agoYeah I remember reading that the Ford employees on the US side got the removal time down to 12 minutes a van.
- gumby 5y agoGiven the cost of labor it was probably worth doing some design engineering to make the removal as easy as possible
- db65edfc7996 5y agoPlanet Money did[0] a story about the Chicken Tax. [0] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/01/25/511663527/episode-632-the-chicken-tax https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/01/25/511663527/epis...
- notch656a 5y agoI'm guessing they're only trouble because they took the seats out. Probably cheaper just to leave them in, and sell along with wrench to remove them 'in case it's needed for repair.' A friendly source will publish in a trade magazine it's the same van after 12 minutes to remove the seats, and the scheme will continue.
- fredoralive 5y agoAccording to an article about it[1], Ford also removed / panelled in various windows as well, so conversion probably isn't as trivially DIYable as just removing some token seats. Although I suppose van buyers are slightly more likely to know someone with a welding torch and some steel sheets than the average person, so perhaps they missed a trick... [1]https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/SB125357990638429655 https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/SB125357990638429655
- fooey 5y agoA seafood company in Canada has a 100 foot section of train track, where they load trucks on and right back off, in an attempt to get around the Jones Act requirement that goods shipped between 2 points in the US must use US flagged vessels https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2021/09/15/feds-accuse-alaska-seafood-transporters-of-secret-scheme-to-evade-the-jones-act-using-100-foot-rail-line/ https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2021/09/15/feds-accuse-...
- mmcgaha 5y agoWe need something like the senate filibuster debate rule for taxes. Basically just state that there is this thing I can do to skirt the tax system so I declare a tax evasion without having to actually make people do stupid stuff.
- stenl 5y agoOr maybe we need the opposite: basically just state that you did this stupid stuff only to avoid the tax, so you should pay the tax anyway.
- version_five 5y agoThe solution to a bad or poorly written law is not to leave it on the books and have some "oh well we actually meant" thing that means it can be arbitrarily applied in a different way than written. Courts can interpret laws if the interpretation is the problem. If there is just a stupid loophole, then either the law itself makes no sense (as seems to apply to this Jones Act) or it needs to be reworded to align with its intent. This reminds me of all the california electricity deregulation games where Enron et al moved power out of state and back, or had plants go down strategically for maintenance in order to gain the system. The correct solution is not to say "play nice, you know what we meant". It's to have a consistent and enforceable set of rules that dont admit gaming.
- ggrrhh_ta 5y agoLaws, at least in many European countries, are prefaced with a preamble, introduction, or Vorwort, that explains a bit of the history, the motivation, the underlying principles, the philosophy, the practicality, and the guidelines for interpretation of that law. The words, as written, are not to be taken, in any case literally. Moreover, a literal interpretation contradicting the spirit of the law is unlawful, and that is one of the principles of many legal systems. Using a loophole that contradicts the law is unlawful; imagine the law says you have the right to water your plants in your balcony; however, you only do it when the neighbor below is sitting at their balcony with the intention to bother them: you are abusing the law and committing an unlawful act.
- philk10 5y agoAre Jaffa cakes classed as biscuits or cakes? https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38985820 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38985820
- bryanlarsen 5y agoThat's a great article. Dives into philosophy without getting wishy-washy. Must have been a fun article to write. > And if it's true to say, "a Jaffa Cake is a cake" (or "a Jaffa Cake is a biscuit") then that also tells us something about the world, i.e. about the properties of a Jaffa Cake, as well as about the meaning of the word "cake". And of course it's even more fun because I have to mentally substitute "cookie" every time I read "biscuit".
- philk10 5y agoyeh, as a Brit who's been in the US for 10 years now i still have to do the cookie/biscuit chips/crisps fries/chips thing
- kingcharles 5y agoLOL. Same.
- smegger001 5y agoI am reminded of the candy tax my state tried 10 years ago and was quickly repealed. Food and candy had different tax rates, and it was decided that if it had flour as a ingredient is was food not candy leading to situations simiarbitray pricing. So kitkat was food snickers were candy
- SenHeng 5y agoI’ve always thought of cookies as that American food thing you dunk in milk while biscuits are that British food thing you dip in tea. When I was young, I dipped my biscuits in Milo.
- inanutshellus 5y agonow you've got me wondering about those old Fig Newtons commercials "it's not a cookie, it's fruited cake!"
- Johnny555 5y agoOddly, the Subaru Baja is much more car-like than the Brat ever was (the Baja has 4 real seats, not jump seats), but when I had one, it was registered as a pickup, not a car.
- njarboe 5y agoThe "truck" (trucks, SUVs etc) class of vehicles in the US have lower average gas mileage requirements than cars so many cars are made just large enough to be classified as "trucks" even though they are marketed still as cars. Subaru did this with almost all their cars back in 2004[1]. [1]https://web.archive.org/web/20210609082852/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/13/business/to-avoid-fuel-limits-subaru-is-turning-a-sedan-into-a-truck.html https://web.archive.org/web/20210609082852/https://www.nytim...
- fredoralive 5y agoRecently in Europe we had a kinda reverse - Suzuki removed the rear seats of the Jimny, a small 4x4, to reclassify it as a commercial vehicle to qualify for laxer CO2 emission standards.
- bitL 5y agoYeah, but they also really dumbed down the interior and lowered roof quality, while selling it for the same MSRP as the previous model (still + 10k from the actual sellers, bringing it to Toyota RAV4 territory price-wise).
- fredoralive 5y agoOuch, I think I'd seen something about them swapping to steel wheels instead of alloys, but I didn't realise it had generally been downgraded. And that price... Pity, as I kinda like the Jimny even if it makes no sense at all for me to own one.
- SenHeng 5y agoI’ve sat in the back of a Jimny, the rear seats might as well not exist. Anyway here’s a popular video of a 660cc Jimny towing a large truck that’s stuck in snow during the great Tokyo Blizzard of 2014. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek5OebM4BC4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek5OebM4BC4
- magicalhippo 5y agoHere in Norway we have the infamous "E6 ham". We have an import tax on dry-cured ham[1], but not unprocessed meat. Someone figured out it was cheaper then to import unprocessed meat from Spain to Norway, turn the truck around as soon as they were customs cleared and drive the 3000 km or so back to Spain for curing. Once cured they'd re-import the processed meat, which now has a different tariff due to being "Norwegian" ham processed abroad, while still being proper Spanish dry-cured ham. So a ~6000 km (3700 miles) detour to save on import taxes, yay... The name comes from the E6 route[2] the trucks drive through Sweden and into Norway. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham#Dry-cured https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham#Dry-cured [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_route_E6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_route_E6
- Hello71 5y agosource? upon searching for "e6 ham", "norway ham tax", "e6 skinke" etc found only this post.
- danielfoster 5y agoNot everything is on the Internet.
- actually_a_dog 5y agoI guess it's not that "infamous," then, is it?
- magicalhippo 5y agoPerhaps the wrong choice of word, English is my second language after all. But it's quite well known in the food importing industry here AFAIK, and most seem to recognize it's exceptionally silly. But it's cheaper...
- geoduck14 5y agoWelcome to English! Infamous refers to something that is "well known for being bad!". A classic example would be a (well known) pirate! If the tax you are talking about is bad (I'm pretty sure it is) and well known (also, yes), then "Infamous" is a fine word to use Notorious is a similar word - well known for something bad Famous works if it isn't bad, but it usnusually used for people, and I would imagine "the highest threshold" of well-known stuff - so expect people to argue with you: "I haven't heard of X, so it must not be famous!" Renowned and prominent are fine alternatives to "famous" My personal favorite is Preeminent- which carries the notion of "#1 best". "My king is the Preeminent leader" - there is NO OTHER leader that can be king Again, welcome to English, enjoy your stay!
- tablespoon 5y ago> This reminds me of the Subaru BRAT in the early '80s. There was a 25% tarrif on imported pickups. Isn't that tariff still in place? It seems like they're smarter with the enforcement, so tricks like that don't work anymore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax > The U.S. Customs Service changed vehicle classifications in 1989, automatically relegating two-door SUVs to light-truck status.[4] Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Suzuki (through a joint venture with GM), and Honda Motor Co. eventually built assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada in response to the tariff.[1]... > Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ruled in 2013 that Transit Connects imported by Ford as passenger wagons and later converted into cargo vans should be subject to the 25% duty rate applicable to vans and not to the 2.5% rate applicable to passenger vehicles. Ford sued and finally, in 2020, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case which confirmed the position of CBP.[22]
- ninly 5y agoIts reputation is eternal: http://achewood.com/index.php?date=12012003 http://achewood.com/index.php?date=12012003
- Lammy 5y agoShould have stuck with the 1978 Volvo 244GLE http://achewood.com/?date=05102005 http://achewood.com/?date=05102005
- Spooky23 5y agoFord was doing this a couple of years ago with their small van… the Transit Connect (iirc). They would import from Europe with seats, but remove the seats at the port and ship them right back.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 5y agoAlmost. The back seats were actually shredded.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- enobrev 5y agoI remember those! A family friend had one and he called them the "Oh Shit" handles! I had a blast riding back there for short trips. I think I was 12 or so. The 80s and early 90s were a very different time.
- jmccaf 5y agoPT cruiser is an example of the opposite, which sought truck classification: https://www.brakeandfrontend.com/tech-spec-retro-work-service-tips-for-the-pt-cruiser/ https://www.brakeandfrontend.com/tech-spec-retro-work-servic... Chrysler specifically designed the PT Cruiser to fit the NHTSA criteria for a light truck in order to bring the average fuel efficiency of the company’s light truck fleet into compliance with CAFE standards.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- olalonde 5y agoIt does shed a light on how arbitrary and ridiculous tariffs can be. I can't imagine the amount of resources wasted on enforcing, complying with and avoiding tariffs. There aren't many consensus in economics but getting rid of tariffs is one and here we are in 2022.
- rlafranchi 5y agoIf anyone has the desire to see one in person, the Subaru dealership in Longmont, CO has a BRAT in their showroom.
- Neil44 5y agoIn Automotive manufacturing, CKD kits are a thing - Completely Knocked Down, or disassembled and shipped as parts and re-assembled again, to avoid taxes like this.
- veltas 5y agoYou don't need seatbelts if you're going facing opposite to direction of travel, so this is safe for driving forwards.