A Twitter tempest is the backdrop to President Trump’s Foxconn stop. The president, in Wisconsin today for the ceremonial Foxconn groundbreaking in Racine County, on Wednesday ramped-up criticism of the iconic Wisconsin company, for offshoring some production due to retaliatory tariffs from Europe.
Harley-Davidson should stay 100% in America, with the people that got you your success. I’ve done so much for you, and then this. Other companies are coming back where they belong! We won’t forget, and neither will your customers or your now very HAPPY competitors!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018
Marquette University economist Joe Daniels says that the president’s stance has put Harley in a most difficult position. “I’d hate to be their PR person right now. I’d had to be in their marketing department right now. They’re kind of caught between a rock and a hard place.”
This week the EU raised U.S. motorcycle tariffs from 6% to 31%. Harley says that would cost millions of dollars, which is why it plans to build those bikes overseas.
Harley, which makes most of its motorcycles at plants in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Missouri, opened plants in India and Brazil in recent years and is opening another in Thailand this year.