Why is the Toyota Hilux banned in the US?
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Ever been on an overseas trip, say, to Australia, and watched a sweet 4WD Mazda or Mitsubishi or Toyota Hilux pickup roll by, all muddled-up and snorkled, and thought, “Why the hell can’t I get that little truck in the US?” Or maybe you dipped your toe into the mid-size pickup market, only to realize the frustration of being stuck with a Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, or the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon twins? We can buy about seven hundred different crossovers in the US, but just three mid-size trucks? What’s up with that? And while we’re at it, what happened to the tough little compact 4x4s and 2WD pickups of yesteryear?The Chicken Tax happened; that’s what. A bizarre, 50-year-old tariff is why we’re mostly stuck with absurdly big full-sized trucks in the States. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which the Trump administration just torpedoed, would have put an end to the Chicken Tax, finally opening the borders to a variety of pint-sized off-road trucks.It’s kind of a weird...