Gas prices are sitting at $4.46 a gallon in Washington, D.C. Transportation is becoming increasingly expensive. The average price of a new vehicle in the United States is $49,461, and the average price of a used car is $26,342. For those looking for simple transportation, finding anything affordable can be difficult.
I support the American worker, understand the national security concerns that require onshoring, and support the revitalization of domestic manufacturing. However, a few executive regulations are making vehicles more expensive for consumers and making the U.S. market less competitive than global markets such as China’s. To make vehicles more affordable for consumers, the United States should eliminate the Chicken Tax and the Most-Favored-Nation tariffs on imported vehicles from Japan and South Korea.
The Chicken Tax was originally enacted after a dispute over poultry exports with Europe. To counter this, President Lyndon B. Johnson imposed a 25% tariff on imported light trucks. As a result, in 2026, the U.S. truck market is largely dominated by domestic manufacturers such as Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. With the average price of a full-size truck being roughly $65,000, the cheapest option, the Ford Maverick, starts at $29,000.
The midsize segment is where we would see the best results from doing away with the Chicken Tax. There is some foreign competition with the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier starting at roughly $30,000; however, with almost $7,500 in tariffs added, they cost almost $40,000 for a midsize truck.
But the Chicken Tax is only half the story; to make all vehicles more affordable, we should do away with MFN tariffs on all imported cars entering the United States. MFN tariffs are a 2.5% tax on cars entering the country. On a $60,000 vehicle, this adds almost $1,500 in additional costs. Typically negotiated as part of trade agreements with individual nations such as Japan and South Korea, the MFN tax was originally scheduled to be phased out for Korean light trucks by 2021. However, during the 2018 renegotiations, President Donald Trump and Korea delayed eliminating these tariffs until 2041.
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True economic populism should favor the consumer. If the U.S. repealed outdated MFN tariffs and protectionist relics such as the Chicken Tax, the market would stabilize. Increased competitive pressure from our allies, such as Japan and South Korea, would force domestic manufacturers to innovate and diversify their product lines, allowing them to be more competitive if they ever faced competition from Chinese imports. Opening trade would be mutually beneficial for all nations involved and could even create more American jobs. Toyota employs about 3,000 workers in Texas to build trucks.
Opening more reciprocal trade with Japan could allow Toyota to manufacture its trucks for international markets in the United States. Repealing these tariffs will foster a truly competitive, global market where U.S.-assembled vehicles find new demand abroad, while domestic consumers finally get the relief they deserve. It is time to pluck the Chicken Tax, drop the MFN vehicle penalties, and let market reality back onto American roads.
Patrick McFarland is a client partnerships representative at Quorum.