Import tax
 

I received information about a 25 percent import tax on all imported autos and parts regardless of age , exported from Canada and Europe ,that your president is imposing on the auto industry. This action will do great harm to the collector car/ speciality car hobby. The information originated in the USA ,sent to the NAACC asking Canadians to send requests to have the part of the bill related to used cars and parts be rescinded, I hope that all car enthusiasts respond. We only have till June 22 to respond according to information received Your response should be e-mailed to "Honorable Wilbur L Ross, Jr. Secretary U S Department of Commerce , Herbert Clark Hoover Building 1401 Constitution Avenue . NW Washington. D C 20230

Re: Import tax
 

this topic came up over on the AACA and the basic response was good, lets get the increase. I was surprised, but some valid points..............

Re: Import tax
 

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Please help me understand why this is a bad thing for me as a US business owner.


Personally, from what I have been following over the last month or so, I feel like it is a good thing for the short-term,--and likely a good thing for awhile until the US economy is shored-up. Many US companies have had their intellectual property stripped by foreign companies where these US companies could no longer compete on their own soil. As a result, this has been a financial disaster for many US middle-class families who lost their jobs to this overseas competition which ultimately caused them to lose everything. During our last Presidential election, our President ran on this very ticket stating he would impose such trade tariffs necessary to ensure that US-based businesses could have a fair chance at rebuilding their company and employing those who wanted to work. Evidently this is what the US voters wanted as he won the election.


Since these NAFTA negotiations have been going on for several months with your country and ours (--apparently with little negotiational progress being made and predictions are that it will continue for months ahead), my suggestion might be for you to encourage Canadian collector car enthusiasts to contact your government asking for them to work with our US Dept. of Commerce.


Yes, I do believe this is going to impact our hobby financially for awhile however in the long run it will likely increase the quality of the cars out there as better quality parts manufactured in the US become available.


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Re: Import tax
 

Most economists think the tariffs are a terrible idea and won't to anything to stop theft of intellectual property. If other countries also impose tariffs on U. S. goods, more will be hurt than will benefit. We have a trade surplus with Canada, so putting tariffs on Canadian goods makes no sense.

Re: Import tax
 

Is this a Political forum now?

Re: Import tax
 

Interesting point of view however most economists (-including my college prof) really have never had real-world experience running business', ...and so they just use their self-formed opinions to sway other people's thoughts. Ironically, their opinions along with most of the election polling companies opinions have proven to be incorrect under this administration.


Maybe I am missing something here but stealing the intellectual property from US manufacturers really is of no benefit to the foreign manufacturers if they have no one to sell them too after they must add 25% tariff to import it back onto our soil. I would expect the way the NAFTA negotiations will go, is our country will allow goods to enter our border duty-free if that product originates from Canada or Mexico (-not originating from any foreign soil and using Can/Mex as a pass-thru) -AND our trade with that country is fairly even percentage-wise. At that point, both sides win.


As far as them imposing tariffs, exactly what do we need of these countries that would impose a tariff on us? Our biggest exports are Food, Petroleum (Crude and Coal), & Pharmaceuticals. These countries need our grain & soybeans, they want our energy, and they need our medicines. We import oil as a convenience to our own ecologists but if push came to shove, we could quit exporting oil and just use it for our own needs.


The next biggest thing we import is equipment & machinery, ...which if we were back into manufacturing here in the US, we could supply our own needs. The 3rd biggest item we import is electronics, ...which is a product we used to manufacture here before that manufacturing of those goods moved off-shore. Again, economists can say what they wish but they need what we are exporting, and we don't necessarily need what we are importing if we can manufacture it here!


As far as the Canadian surplus, the last I read it was something like we do $675 billion in total trade between them & us, and the difference is like $5 billion which is around 1 percent. In the Grande Scheme of things, that is nothing.


Again, I think this is going to be good for the car collector over the long term since in all likelihood, the reproduction parts manufactured here in the states will be of much higher quality, and when more hobbyists have a stronger income and/or portfolio, they will have more $$ to spend on their cars. Think about this as it relates to our Model-A. Presently we have tires being manufactured in the US along with Brazil and Vietnam. We all read here how we want the best product for our Model-A, and we know the US-manufactured Goodyear seems to be the best tire on the market. Now the playing field is leveled where the prices for tires will be close to even, and when a hobbyist must buy tires for a Model-A, he will likely purchase the US made ones if the price between the 3 is similar. The same for shock absorbers, --we have two manufacturers here in the US and one in S America. I agree it will put a hardship on foreign manufacturers building reproduction parts that will now need to compete with the US-made reproduction parts however I honestly believe it will be a good thing. Also realize that the owner of the foreign manufactured reproduction parts has the option to bring his tooling into the states and begin having it manufactured here. Either way, we are boosting our economy by having it manufactured here instead of making other countries richer.




Yeah kinda, ….but it is very pertinent to the Model-A hobby.


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Re: Import tax
 

One problem I see is that the parts that can be made cheaper (due to labour costs or costs of raw materials) will still be sought out by a majority of the buyers. This may not encourage them to buy the parts made locally so the extra tariffs can actually hurt the local economy. With International trade (car parts included) being competitive on a global scale, it's sometimes hard to try and tax people to make them buy local goods with higher prices. Hopefully the collectors and and other car afficianados will still continue to deal in the hobby as we need more younger people getting interested in some of the older classics I think.

Re: Import tax
 

US intellectual property as it relates to cars is not easy to get one’s head around. US cars don’t have a good reputation here.- there are lots better so who would want to copy US cars.:confused:

Re: Import tax
 

No politics fellas. Ever.