Harley-Davidson announces moves to avoid tariffs
Listen to this articleWASHINGTON – Three days after the European Union (EU) imposed $3.2 billion in retaliatory tariffs on more than 100 American-made products motorcycle giant Harley Davidson announced it will relocate some its operations overseas.
“Harley-Davidson will be implementing a plan to shift production of motorcycles for EU destinations from the U.S. to its international facilities to avoid the tariff burden,” the Milwaukee-based company said in a 8-K disclosure form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday. “Harley-Davidson expects ramping-up production in international plants will require incremental investment and could take at least 9 to 18 months to be fully complete.”
The company said: “EU tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles exported from the U.S. have increased from 6 percent to 31 percent. Harley-Davidson expects these tariffs will result in an incremental cost of approximately $2,200 per average motorcycle exported from the U.S. to the EU.”
The tariffs went into effect on Friday. The EU is considering a second round of tariffs that would increase the export burden to $4.3 billion.
Last month the Trump administration followed through with a plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The plan was announced in March. The EU, Canada and Mexico were given a two-month exemption.
The tariff regime is primarily designed to crack down on Chinese trade abuse, but the administration has not exempted close U.S. allies.
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a life-long passion for politics at all levels. He has interned in the Maryland General Assembly and has volunteered for several congressional campaigns. Given this particular background, he has a unique insight into the dynamics of political analysis. When he is not writing, Bryan spends his time reading about history and frequenting Chinese restaurants.