The Chicken Tax

There are many cases I've seen where the system is working against the environment - here is one example, from the United States.

It's a strange world - a fifty year old tax in the US causes many thousands of brand new car seats to end up in the landfill each year...

Roll back to the sixties - when the West Germans put a rather high tariff on imports of poultry from the states. In retribution, the US put a 25% tariff on imports of commercial vehicles, targeting the VW Kombi van.

Today, both tariffs still exist. This makes it economically viable for the Ford Motor Company to import it's Transit Connect van from Turkey as a passenger van, and upon arrival in the states, promptly remove the windows and seats, throw them away, and sell the vehicles as commercial vehicles.

Ford would object to my use of the wording "throw away". They claim to recycle them, which, in pratice means that the scrap metal is recyled, and the fabric and foam goes to the landfill. I for one object to the word "recycle" being used when an item is not recycled in it's entirity.

If Ford is going to choose to work around the so called chicken tax, then what is the point in it's existance at all? The status quo just serves to create waste.

Ford Transit Connect