Trump threatens European Union with retaliation over ‘unfair’ tariffs on Harley-Davidson

Juan Mendoza

The logo of USA motorcycle company Harley-Davidson is seen on one of their models at a shop in Paris, France, August 16, 2018.

At the time, Harley-Davidson, which has to make the purchase of steel overseas, vowed to relocate production of motorbikes intended for Europe abroad to escape the European Union import duties introduced in reaction to Trump's tariffs on metals.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence stands next to Harley Davidson motorcycles after meeting with Harley Davidson executives at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington U.S., on February 2, 2017.

Levatich said Europe will be "even more important" to its long-term business than previously, because of the popularity of new middleweight motorcycles the company is introducing.

The company also added retaliatory import duties, mainly comprising those imposed by the European Union, will cost Harley between $100 million and $120 million in 2019.

European Union tariffs on US -manufactured motorcycles, which increased to 31 percent from 6 percent last June, are set to rise to 56 percent in 2021.

He ended the tweet by saying: "So unfair to US".

It meant tariffs on Harleys climbed from 6% to 31%, and they are set to rise further in 2021.

In addition, China's tariffs on the bikes exported from the USA have increased to 55 per cent from 30 per cent as a result of the trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

It came as the motorcycle maker this morning posed results for the first quarter of the year, showing profit down 26.7 per cent year-on-year.

The company said it found 278,000 "new riders" in the United States in 2018 and that "this group is the most diverse across age, ethnicity and gender in all the years Harley-Davidson has tracked this data".

Amid the steel dispute, Trump also welcomed a boycott planned by Harley-Davidson owners and called for higher taxes on the company. "Great!" Trump wrote on August 12. A really bad move!

Similarly, China's tariffs on the bikes exported from the US have increased to 55 percent from 30 percent as a result of the trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

The company topped expectations for first-quarter profit by more than 30 cents per share and stuck to shipment forecasts for the whole of 2019, which some analysts had expected to be cut.

Despite this, overall sales continued to fall.

The company's quarterly report revealed that its revenue from motorcycles and related products fell 12.3 percent to $1.19 billion from January through March, while year-on-year net income fell to $127.9 million, or 80 cents per share, from $174.76 million, or $1.03 per share.

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