Harley-Davidson, Blaming E.U. Tariffs, Will Move Some Production Out of U.S.

“Increasing international production to alleviate the E.U. tariff burden is not the company’s preference, but represents the only sustainable option to make its motorcycles accessible to customers in the E.U. and maintain a viable business in Europe,” Harley-Davidson said in the filing.

Moving production abroad is likely to draw the ire of Mr. Trump, who as a presidential candidate publicly assailed companies such as the furnace and air-conditioner maker Carrier, which planned to close a plant in the United States and shift manufacturing operations to Mexico. Mr. Trump regularly tells his supporters that American manufacturing is making a major comeback and lavishes praise on companies that build domestically.

But that was before Mr. Trump followed through on his plans to levy tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from around the world in an effort, he says, to get other countries to lower their trade barriers. Instead, the opposite has happened, as the European Union, Mexico and Canada respond with their own levies, many of which are aimed at Mr. Trump’s political base.

Representative Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker and Wisconsin Republican, said on Monday that Harley-Davidson’s move was evidence that raising trade barriers is a bad idea.

“This is further proof of the harm from unilateral tariffs,” Mr. Ryan said. “The best way to help American workers, consumers, and manufacturers is to open new markets for them, not to raise barriers to our own market.”

Other industries have also expressed fear that Mr. Trump’s tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum and the retaliation from other countries will be damaging for business.

Mid Continent Nail Corporation, a Missouri-based manufacturer of nails, said last week that it would likely lay off half of its employees and that it could go out of business because the higher costs of the steel it imports from Mexico is making its products prohibitively expensive. American whiskey makers have also been fretting about their European sales and some, such as Brown-Forman, responded by shipping more of their spirits abroad before the tariffs took effect.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/business/harley-davidson-us-eu-tariffs.html?partner=rss&emc=rss