Dealer Group Back from Thailand

Ward's Dealer Business, Feb 1, 2006

An American International Automobile Dealers Assn. delegation is back from Thailand where it traveled last month for a sixth round of negotiations on a proposed free-trade agreement between that country and the U.S.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative invited the delegation to Thailand where it is attempting to increase awareness among Thais of the role international nameplate auto dealers play in trying to repeal a 25% tariff on pickup trucks imported to the U.S.
"Our association was founded nearly four decades ago by VW dealers to specifically lobby against this tariff," says AIADA Chairman Don Hicks.

The tariff is a holdover from a trade dispute dating to Lyndon Johnson's presidency. It was a retaliatory move against Germany for its treatment of U.S. frozen chicken exports.

In Thailand, AIADA members and staffers met with U.S. and Thai trade negotiators to discuss efforts to repeal the 25% tariff. Thailand is the world's second largest producer of pickup trucks behind the U.S.