Deep in the incredibly boring annals of international trade law lies the 1964 Chicken Tax, a 25 percent tariff that completely ruined the American light truck market.

A closer look

Deep in the incredibly boring annals of international trade law lies the 1964 Chicken Tax, a 25 percent tariff that completely ruined the American light truck market. During the Cold War, European nations placed heavy tariffs on cheap imported American chicken, so President Lyndon B. Johnson retaliated by slapping a massive tax on potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and commercial light trucks. While the other items were eventually dropped, the truck tariff remained, meaning foreign automakers basically stopped selling small pickups in the United States. Thanks to a 60-year-old grudge over frozen poultry, modern Americans are practically forced to buy monstrous, fuel-guzzling domestic tanks just to haul a couple of bags of mulch from the hardware store