Trump threatens Harley over move to Thailand

Workers unpack new motorcycles arriving at a Harley-Davidson showroom in Bangkok on May 15. (New York Times photo)
Workers unpack new motorcycles arriving at a Harley-Davidson showroom in Bangkok on May 15. (New York Times photo)

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on Harley-Davidson on Tuesday, threatening to tax the company for offshoring manufacturing and saying the iconic American motorcycles should "never" be built outside the United States.

One day after the Wisconsin-based company said it was planning to shift some manufacturing overseas due to the European Union's tariffs in retaliation for US duties, Trump accused Harley-Davidson of appropriating the trade war as an "excuse" for the move.

EU officials, meanwhile, suggested Trump had only himself to blame for the falling-out with a company he had previously hailed as "a true American icon."

The EU responded to US tariffs on steel and aluminium, but hitting a series of American products with import taxes, including motorcycles, bourbon and blue jeans.

"We don't want to punish, but that is the unfortunate consequence, that (US companies) will put pressure on the American administration to say hey, hold on a minute, this is not good for the American economy," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said at a news briefing.

In a series of caustic early-morning tweets Trump dismissed any notion that his policies were responsible for Harley-Davidson's move.

"Early this year Harley-Davidson said they would move much of their plant operations in Kansas City to Thailand. That was long before Tariffs were announced. Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse," he said.

"When I had Harley-Davidson officials over to the White House, I chided them about tariffs in other countries, like India, being too high ... Harley must know that they won't be able to sell back into U.S. without paying a big tax!"

Last year, Harley-Davidson announced it would build a plant in Thailand after Trump pulled out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which would have abolished tariffs on their motorcycles across 40 percent of the world's economy.

"We see tremendous opportunity particularly in Southeast Asia and the investment in the plant in Thailand to get around the egregious tariffs and duties is a part of accessing a very important market," Harley-Davidson chief executive Matthew Levatich said in late April.

Trump ridiculed the company for building motorcycles abroad.

"A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never!" he said on Twitter.

"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!"

That statement drew criticism from Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer, who said on Twitter, "If the Germans started saying this about BMWs or the Japanese about Toyotas, that's a whole lot of Americans out of work..."

Details of the Harley-Davidson move to Thailand were disclosed in the Bangkok Post 13 months ago.

The Thailand plant will assemble motorcycles for Asia that were previously imported from India or the United States.

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Vocabulary

  • abolish: to officially get rid of a law, system, practice, etc. - ยกเลิก
  • aura (noun): a feeling or particular quality that is very noticeable and seems to surround a person or place - พลังหรือรัศมีที่ออกมาจากคนหรือสิ่งของ, บรรยากาศ, สภาพอากาศโดยรอบ
  • caustic: describes a way of speaking that is hurtful, critical or intentionally unkind - เจ็บแสบ
  • duty: a tax -
  • egregious: extremely bad - เลวทราม, ,เหลือเกิน
  • excuse: a reason that you give to explain why you have done something bad, or why you have not done something that you should have done - ข้อแก้ตัว, ข้ออ้าง
  • icon: something that is well known and acts as a sign or symbol of something มีชื่อเสียงและเป็นสัญลักษณ์แทนบาง -
  • manufacturing (noun): making and producing a product - การผลิต
  • plant (noun): a large factory - โรงงาน
  • punish: to make somebody suffer because they have broken the law or done something wrong - ทำโทษ
  • retaliation: doing something harmful or unpleasant to someone because they have done something harmful or unpleasant to you - การตอบโต้,การแก้แค้น
  • ridicule: to make somebody/something look silly by laughing at them or it in an unkind way - เยาะเย้ย, ล้อเลียน
  • tariff (noun): customs tax, a tax paid on goods coming into a country (and sometimes on goods going out) - ภาษีศุลกากร
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