Put a tariff on their exports? Ezpz
He would never be allowed to put them out of business. That’s the opposite of MAGA.
You don’t have to put them out of business. You just have to tip the financial incentive back in your favor.
Eg, EU tariffs imports at 10%. USA threatens 11% export tariff if they leave
I think you would need to tip the financial incentive in the company’s favor. The thing is, if HD moves to Europe to manufacture bikes for Europe, they don’t have to worry about export tariffs.
Then they’d be forced to move enough production to cover the rest of the world. Past 2 years show ~40% of their revenues being non USA. That’s a massive amount of production to move without crippling your at home production.
Couple this with ballpark sqft numbers from their facilities, and you’re looking at sub 20% of their current manufacturing capacity being handled by their Brazil/India/Australia. Which means even if they want to move production to avoid tariffs, it would require a massive capital investment and be reliant on the tariffs not changing.
Does a scenario exist where HD can make a good financial decision by moving production to Europe? Absolutely. Does Trump have the power to make that not a smart financial move? Absolutely.
Incidentally, I’d really like to hear what all those small government conservatives are saying about a Republican POTUS threatening an US company that “they will be taxed like never before”?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1011584315040419840
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They were already planning on opening a plant in Thailand. US sales have been dropping for a while now. So maybe the future is overseas.
He doesn’t know they are already being built overseas?
If they’re willing to commit HARD to a non American Harley Davidson company, despite the 1 country still being 60% of its revenues, then sure. But if Trump WANTS to make it economically impossible for them to take jobs from here to the EU, he absolutely can.
Fwiw, this was the exact thing Dems were so fucking preachy about for the year leading up to the election. He’s targeted specific companies before, triggering billions in lost value. Doing so via the ‘proper channels’ would just be a change in tactic, not in procedure.
His ego doesn’t allow him to be in a scenario where he feels like he’s lost.
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The irony is that HD is using the money saved from the tax cuts to restructure the company and cut jobs in America. This was one of the things the Democrats warned about.
It is not a certainty that he has that power.
He doesn’t. Hell, I know people who own them that don’t know that.
My uncle had a Harley Sprint from Italy made in the 70’s.
Yeah, but those aren’t real HD. (Just kidding)
Real HD shake themselves to pieces every couple hundred miles!
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Well duh. It was a super predictable response to flooding these companies with so much cash when they already weren’t having capital problems. Massive stock buybacks and long term efficiency efforts weren’t just inevitable, it was the only logical move for a good handful of them
Sure it is. The US is hand over fist the largest area of business, both in sales and in manufacturing. The POTUS still has the power to issue tariffs. Not only can he hit Harley directly, he can also target them at any point in their production
Interesting.
I’ll wait until I read actual journalism to form an opinion.
Also…
Unlike Trump…these Companies understand that they are part of a GLOBAL economy, like it or not.
This is not Post WW-II where much of the modern World was under rubble; the rest had not even entered the 15th Century; and American business and commerce’s only competition was each other.
(From the article):
“…American investors and the CEO’s of major corporations are pulling money back from overseas, bringing American cash back to American shores…”
…and doing what with it…?
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Hookers and coke.
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Who knows. Hopefully used for wage increases and more hiring to start. Just an interesting stat when the year before they only brought back 38 billion last year compared to 305 billion this year.