Mercedes’ Metris Van Sits Out Game of Tariff Chicken

MADRID – Mercedes-Benz prepares to launch its Vito midsize van in the North American market under the Metris badge, displaying four concept versions at the recent Specialty Equipment Market Assn. show.

The Metris will follow its bigger brother Sprinter into North America, which will help increase production at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vitoria, Spain, where the Vito is assembled. Plant Manager Emilio Titos wants daily output to reach 475 units on two shifts by next summer.

Titos doesn’t rule out the possibility of a third shift at Vitoria. For now, Mercedes is not scheduling Metris production in the U.S., Canada or Mexico, apparently because the automaker wants to test the van’s reception by North American consumers over several years’ time.

Klaus-Juergen Benzinger, head of Mercedes’ strategic project for midsize vans, hopes the Sprinter’s inroads into the North American market will help the Vito/Metris become the automaker’s second global van.

The Vitoria plant will assemble passenger multipurpose vehicles and commercial panel vans from CKD kits. Mercedes is building two versions of the same model because they are treated differently under U.S. tariff rules.

The tariff issue dates back 50 years, when Germany imposed a duty to curb poultry imports from the U.S. In retaliation, the Americans set a 25% tariff on imports of German-built CVs, specifically the Volkswagen T1 Bus, but only 2.5% on cars.

This tariff barrier later was used to curb imports of small pickups from Japan and remains in effect, although it does not appear to be applied uniformly. This may be because ongoing globalization of the automotive industry has prompted U.S. manufacturers to assemble vehicles in many countries – except Japan.

Inconsistent application of the tariff has become a point of contention between U.S. Customs officials and automakers, including Ford, which was accused last year of fraud in its importation of its Transit Connect vehicles assembled for the automaker by Otosan in Turkey.

Ford allegedly imported only the passenger version of the Transit Connect range and, after paying the 2.5% duty, shipped the vehicles to facilities at the Port of Baltimore, where the side-rear-window glass was replaced by metal panels and the second row of seating was removed and stored to be offered later as an option.

Ford continues converting a majority of its imported Transit Connect passenger vehicles into CVs, but the dispute over whether it must pay the 25% “chicken tax” has not been resolved.

The disagreement is part of the reason Ford has shifted Transit Connect production from Turkey to its Valencia plant in Spain in anticipation of a free-trade agreement being negotiated between the U.S. and the European Union.

Mercedes hopes to find another way around the problem by importing only MPV versions of the Metris from Spain without resorting to removing windows and seats upon their arrival in the U.S. In the meantime, Mercedes and other automakers are following the free-trade talks to see whether removal of the “chicken tax” will fly.