Trump:

Riding Harley Davidson Into the Ground

Harley Davidson hasn’t made a right decision, that I can remember. Yesterday, the company’s plan to avoid European custom duties, failed. HD had been sued over its attempt to import motorcycles into Europe, without paying customs duties.

Rideapart.com reported yesterday that;

According to the EU’s Court of Justice, “The case arose after Harley-Davidson moved part of its motorcycle production from the US to Thailand following the EU’s imposition of additional customs duties of 25% on U.S. – origin motorcycles.” This, however, was deemed as “aimed primarily to avoid duties and deemed it economically unjustified under Article 33 of Delegated Regulation 2015/2446.”

When Trump was last in office, he imposed a set of tariffs on European goods. The EU responded with its own counter-tariffs, which imposed a 25 percent duty on American goods, including Harley-Davidson.

A country where no tariffs were to be imposed, however was Thailand. So, Harley moved part of its production to Thailand, specifically the portion of its motorcycles that get sent to the European Union. This way, it could hopefully avoid tariffs by claiming that their motor or cycles were Thai in origin, not American.

Well the ruse failed, as did Harley’s final appeal to the court, and the import duties will now have to be paid.

So what does this mean for Harley?

In 2023, Harley-Davidson sold 32,200 bikes in Europe. That number was down 23% from the year before, and that was without the additional 25% import duties being added to the price of the bikes. Similarly, in Canada, Harley sold another 8,000 motorcycles in 2023, sans tariffs.

However, Trump is planning on duplicating the fiasco he imposed on Harley-Davidson, the first time he was President, (we all know Trump now hates HD since they had the temerity to attempt to survive by moving some of their production to Thailand). Additionally, Trump, – ‘stellar genius’ that he is, became even more incensed over HD making a deal with Hero Motor Company of India, to build HD’s smaller motorcycles under license for HD in China.

Well, boy genius is back, and he says he will add the 25% to all imported goods from Canada, and slap further tariffs, (the most ‘beautiful word’, according to Trump) on European, Mexican, Canadian and Chinese goods.

Great, – you just drove the final stake through the heart of HD, Mr. Stable Genius. As I wrote in a previous article, “Harley-Davidson’s Swan Song”, HD will be lucky to sell “A” motorcycle in Canada or Europe, Mexico or China.

Seeing as Harley-Davidson is losing money faster than mango man can add tariffs, HD sales will likely lose another 42,000 units. That would mean that Harley sales will likely be less than 120,000 motorcycles in 2025 without factoring in other losses from around the world, that continue to mount. For a company that sold 380,000 units just ten years ago, the fall has been precipitous.

How long can Harley Davidson continue?

Not long, — and that was before El Presidente sought to impose his own irrationality into the situation.

Harley Davidson is destined to be sold or go bankrupt, and the final stake through the heart of Harley will have been hammered there by its own Presidential Hammerhead.

Maslow’s hammer, a business theory taught to novices at college, has become trump’s favourite and only tool. “When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.”

Well America, your hammerhead has, once again, arrived.

Ouch…