Harley Davidson responds to European Union threat of tariffs on its bikes

The article at Journal Sentinel intends to alarm and to slam Trump's talk about tariffs on steel and aluminum, but I do not think they appreciate how much they make Trump's case for him.

Trump said, "watch companies move their production to United States to take advantage of our market."

Here is Harley Davidson rather anti-Trump statement.

“Import tariffs on steel and aluminum will drive up costs for all products made with these raw materials, regardless of their origin. Additionally, a punitive, retaliatory tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles in any market would have a significant impact on our sales, our dealers, their suppliers and our customers in those markets."

It's axiomatic. Everyone knows, "tariffs bad."

The E.U. said the same thing when Bush attempted to place tariffs on imported steel. Bush folded. Trump isn't so easily intimidated. And global economies are different today. Go ahead and put tariffs on uniquely American products, peanut butter, Levi jeans, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, American whiskey. Silly Jean-Claude Juncker, Levi jeans are made in Asia. Harley-Davidson has a plant in India. American cotton is exported all over the world, and American peanut butter for you is like Vegemite for us. Get this going and your pharmaceuticals will suddenly double in cost and our fortunes-making market will get even tighter.

The world is saying this means tariff war. We already have that and America holds the shit-end of the sticks. Trump's opening salvo is his attempt to get the world to recognize that but there is so much built-in anti-Trump sentiment from everyone that awareness of markets tightened and closed to American products while our market is opened to theirs goes unrecognized.

Later in the article at Journal Sentinel, they go on to describe Harley-Davidson global activities, and what caused them.

India has a 100% tariff on large touring motorcycles. So Harley-Davidson built a plant there.

Thailand has a 60% tariff on large touring motorcycles, so Harley-Davidson is building a plant there.

There are plenty of non-tariff trade barriers against American products.

Things are changing in Japan. They did have restriction on licenses for large motorcycles. The licensee was required to pass a test that included riding across a balance beam. Only 2% of applicants passed the required test.

They did have a law against passengers on large motorcycles. But that law has been repealed.

The article goes further into discussion about Paul Ryan disagreeing with Trump and taking his complaints to Wilbur Ross who was receptive.

“We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war and are urging the White House to not advance with this plan," said AshLee Strong, Ryan's spokeswoman. "The new tax reform law has boosted the economy and we certainly don't want to jeopardize those gains.”

Not just regular worried. Extremely worried.

Trump sees American companies and American market in general being taken advantage of and he doesn't like what he sees. He has the power to make corrections, but all that is disruptive to existing trade agreements that lock in unfair trade practices. The article admits that companies build plants in countries where tariffs are outrageous to avoid the high cost of exporting to them. So those tariffs encouraged investment within the high tariff countries. Trump actually said this. But that's cold comfort to the companies struggling with the new interference by government making their resources more expensive and less competitive globally.

Trump is disrupting the global conglomerates, the global bankers, and the industry and commodity monopolists who control trade by controlling supply and by extensive lobbying legislators.

The president said he planned to move forward with special tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, contending the U.S. has long been “mistreated” in trade deals.

The rest of the article vitiates the  drama by describing Trump and his key advisors open to discussion and open to tweaks and specific exclusions while he makes his case about the existing unfairness to American producers and the importance to the world of the American market.