grapes of folly
quoth boxter: "having the gummint tax grapes from chili (sic) at $8 per lb because they are flown in means I dont eat grapes in january and some poor chilean farmer will be homeless because he cant sell his crops."
Now then, box, you shouldn't pull these notions out of your ass like that. Grapes do indeed have a calendar-specific rate (the first one of these I've seen, and I spent a decade in close company with the tariff back when I was assigned to the brain-dead employer's international division), being dutiable (not taxable, although I grant that to them as pays it this is a distinction largely without a difference) at $1.13 per cubic meter between February 15 and March 31, free of duty between April 1 and June 30, and at $1.80 per cubic meter during the rest of the year. You do the math: that ain't anything remotely like $8/lb (and I checked to see if there were any special Chile-specific punitive duties—there aren't). Actually, though, because Chile and the US have signed a free trade agreement, grapes from that long, skinny country can be imported duty free all year long provided only that they are accompanied by an official Chilean certificate of origin. If your local produce stand has been telling you different, he is cruelly taking advantage of your demonstrated credulity, and should be reproached for this.
cordially,
