According to the US President Donald Trump, it is “great” that many Harley-Davidson owners decided to boycott the company in this row of tariffs that escalates. Trump said that “most other firms… including Harley competitors” agreed to imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
As for Harley-Davidson, they announced that some of the production would be moved out of the United States, in order to avoid the tariffs set by the EU. As a response POTUS threatened the company with higher taxes. Instead of commenting, Harley-Davidson pointed to an interview CNBC did with Matthew Levatich last month.
Many @harleydavidson owners plan to boycott the company if manufacturing moves overseas. Great! Most other companies are coming in our direction, including Harley competitors. A really bad move! U.S. will soon have a level playing field, or better.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2018
He said that the company’s preference “in all cases is to supply the world from the United States.” However, he also noted that the firm invested in international manufacturing over the past two decades because “trade and tariff situations in certain markets” made it “prohibitive” without this investment.
“We’re only doing that because these are important growth markets for the company that, without those investments, we wouldn’t have access to those customers, at any kind of reasonable price,” he said.
The warning came last month from Harley-Davidson that the profit margins of the company this year were most likely to halve due to trade tariffs. The added costs this year will be approximately $50 million because of the taxes imposed by the European Union. In June, the famous motorcycle maker said that they would have to move some of the production from the US to the assembly plants in Australia, Brazil, India, and Thailand. It is not specified which factory would start producing more.
Meanwhile, Trump declared that tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are essential to protect the US steel and aluminum industries. This has forced countries such as Canada, Mexico, India, as well as EU to react. The US has also threatened to hit billions of Chinese imports with import taxes, while the country also considers tariffs on foreign cars and vehicle parts.
