U.S Customs and Border Protection wants a monetary sanction for this ruckus.
Importing cargo vehicles to the US is more expensive than buying passenger cars. The so-called chicken tax is a result of a 1960s trade dispute involving frozen chicken. Notably, passengers vehicles are subject to a 2.5 percent import tax, which is a small amount compared with the 25 percent tariff for cargo vehicles.
Ford imported the Transport Connect from Turkey in the early part of the previous decade. It had enough rear seats to be considered a passenger car.
This was agreed upon by the Justice Department. The rear seats were considered temporary, cheap rear seats that could be removed immediately after the van cleared Customs.
Ford appealed to the federal safety standards for Transit Connect rear passenger seats. The seats had seatbelts in all positions and there were anchors for the seat belts and rear seats. In contrast to the CBP’s belief, the Blue Oval also claimed that older Transit Connects were street-legal passenger cars.
Ford claimed that it had paid all the duties and interest due to the previous imports. The Supreme Court did not hear the appeal. Ford stated in a Reuters that the CBP is set to request additional tariffs of $181 millions and a monetary penalty of “as high as $652million to $1.3 billion”.
Ford stated that it would vigorously defend its position and that any penalty “would have to be based upon our level of culpability, as determined by courts,” according the same report by Reuters.