Trump threatens Harley-Davidson with ‘big tax’ as firm plans move

For more than a century, the company has been an icon not just in motorcycle culture but in American culture at large. He tweeted, “Harley must know that they won’t be able to sell back into USA without paying a big tax!”

It was unclear what taxes Mr. Trump was referring to, and why the company might have to pay them since it intends to maintain production in the U.S.as well.

The company is setting up an assembly plant in Thailand, a move it announced in May 2017, but that would put together bikes only for the growing Southeast Asian market.

The EU tariffs on $3.4 billion worth of us products, including bourbon, peanut butter, orange juice and Harleys, are retaliation for duties the Trump administration is imposing on European steel and aluminum.

The president also tweeted on Tuesday morning: “A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never!”

Harley-Davidson representatives did not immediately return a request for comment.

Mike Gearhardt, who was a roundtable participant during Trump’s Dayton campaign visit, said he could not have anticipated that Trump’s “generalities and platitudes” that afternoon would translate into as much as $700,000 in lost profits this year for his employee-owned JBK Manufacturing. “Harley must know that they won’t be able to sell back into USA without paying a big tax!”

Trump tweeted that Harley-Davidson is just using the tariffs as an excuse.

He said the administration has been “getting other countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers that have been unfairly used for years against our farmers, workers and companies”. “We are opening up closed markets and expanding our footprint”.

Trump even made passing reference to tariffs during the meeting, saying they were a way to help the firm.

The new taxes are meant to answer tariffs the Trump administration is requiring on steel and aluminum imports from Europe.

For motorcycles, the European bloc raised its 6% tariff to 31%.

Tariffs have also forced the hand of the maker of another iconic American brand, Jack Daniel’s.

The news has come as a major surprise for Trump, who has been continually raising the issue of high import tariffs on the motorcycle manufacturer elsewhere.

The EU is imposing tariffs on $3.2 billion worth of American goods, including motorcycles, orange juice, bourbon, peanut butter, motorboats, cigarettes and denim.

Brown-Forman fell to its lowest level in nearly seven months on Monday. “We need to be there and be relevant and grow our share”. The stock is down 18 per cent this year.

Likewise, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and unpaid White House adviser, sourced her company’s products exclusively from low-wage factories in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China, The Post found.

Trump says in tweets Tuesday that the company had already announced it was closing a Kansas City plant. That increases the costs for companies to bring the parts they need into the USA to complete their products.

“I don’t think he’s a bike guy”.

To avoid paying a 31% tariff to ship motorcycles from the USA to the EU, Harley chose to move more production to its plants in places like Thailand and Brazil.

“This is further proof of the harm from unilateral tariffs”, AshLee Strong, a Ryan spokesperson, said Monday.

Additionally, retaliatory tariffs from the EU, Canada, Mexico, and more make it expensive to get finished goods into those markets.