By: Chris White
President Donald Trump warned Harley-Davidson Tuesday that the motorcycle company faces huge tax hikes for using trade tensions as justification for moving production overseas.
“A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never!” Trump wrote in an early-morning tweet Tuesday. “Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!”
A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2018
The president’s threat comes after Harley announced Monday it was moving some production overseas due to increased costs from the European Union’s retaliatory tariffs against the Trump administration’s tariff policies.
Very little production will be moving to Europe, according to the company. Harley’s overseas manufacturing plants are in Brazil, India, Australia and Thailand.
Harley mentioned the tariffs on motorcycles exported from the U.S. went up from 6 to 31 percent in the past few weeks, which is an increase “of approximately $2,200 per average motorcycle exported from the U.S. to the EU,” according to the company.
Trump publicly thanked Harley-Davidson in 2017 for “building things in America” and criticized other companies for moving production outside the U.S. He changed tunes slightly after Harley’s announcement Monday, suggesting in a tweet that the move “surprised” him.
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