The Rooster Tax was the automotive trade’s most well-known tariff, not less than up till President Donald Trump began senselessly slapping tariffs on every thing. The Rooster Tax began as an truly reciprocal tariff when Europe imposed an import tax on American chickens in 1963, which triggered a 25% lack of enterprise for U.S. rooster exports. In retaliation, the U.S. authorities added imported vans to the record of imported items that face a 25% import tariff, which triggered the costs of imported vans to blow up and turn out to be uncompetitive with American vans. To be able to circumvent the tariff, Toyota took over a former napalm manufacturing facility within the port city of Lengthy Seashore, California to fabricate beds that might be bolted onto unfinished Hello-Luxes that had been imported with a cab, engine, and chassis, thus qualifying as imported autos, not vans.
Hagerty revealed a sensational article about this automotive historical past factoid, and as a Lengthy Seashore native who by no means knew this lore, I needed to write about it. The unique article could be very detailed and I implore you to offer it a learn.
From napalm to truck beds
The manufacturing facility that Toyota took over was occupied by Diamond Plastics within the Sixties, and one of many merchandise produced there was the incendiary gel utilized in flame throwers and firebombs within the Vietnam Conflict often called napalm. Dealing with such a unstable compound resulted in three reported explosions on the manufacturing facility, which was positioned close to a neighborhood. Unsurprisingly, the neighboring residents weren’t enthusiastic in regards to the manufacturing of napalm of their again yard, they usually protested towards it, however ultimately Diamond Plastics misplaced its contract on the Atlas Fabricators manufacturing facility, and Toyota contracted the ability to provide truck beds.
Since Toyota imported incomplete autos relatively than vans, the rolling cab-and-chassis had been solely topic to a 2.5% import tax relatively than the 25% tax that affected imported vans. After Atlas Fabricators manufactured the truck beds, Toyota would bolt the beds onto the frames, qualifying the vans as having their ultimate meeting accomplished in the USA. There have been 15 different U.S. suppliers that produced truck beds for Toyota by 1972, and by 1974 Toyota took over Atlas Fabricators and renamed it Lengthy Seashore Fabricators, then later renamed to Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA, and eventually it renamed the ability as Toyota Auto Physique California because the facility did not truly manufacture vehicles, it simply fabricated truck beds.
Toyota
Toyota Auto Physique California remains to be in operation in Lengthy Seashore, California right now, and it is the first producer of components for Toyota Tacomas in addition to past-model service components. It was Toyota’s first manufacturing facility in North America, and it stays the corporate’s longest-running North American plant. To examine much more titillating particulars of the plant’s historical past, learn Hagerty’s article right here.
