Posted on 03/30/2016 5:27:05 PM PDT by VitacoreVision
In an unusually strong protectionist action, President Reagan today ordered a tenfold increase in tariffs for imported heavyweight motorycles.
The impact of Mr. Reagan's action, which followed the unanimous recommendation of his trade advisers, is effectively limited to Japanese manufacturers, which dominate every sector of the American motorycycle market.
The action was exceptional for protecting a single American company, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee, the sole surviving American maker of motorcycles.
The only comparable trade action by this Administration, the President's decision last May to impose quotas on sugar imports for the first time since 1974, was aimed at an entire industry.
''We're delighted,'' said Vaughn L. Beals, Harley-Davidson's chairman. ''It will give us time that we might otherwise not have had to make manufacturing improvements and bring out new products.''
But it brought angry reaction today from Japanese officials and a threat to file unfair-trade charges against the United States in Geneva.
''We consider it unfortunate that the American side decided to take this kind of drastic measure,'' said Hiroshi Ota, counselor for public affairs at the Japanese Embassy here. He added that Japan was considering taking a formal protest of the action to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
The action, which becomes effective in 15 days, affects large highway motorcycles with an engine displacement of more than 700 cubic inches,the only market in which Harley-Davidson now manufactures. It would raise the current tariff of 4.4 percent to 49.4 percent in the first year of the five-year program.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Reagan was an isolationist fascist.....or something.
Reagan was for free trade, but not national suicide. It was more like opening up foreign markets for OUR goods.
Once Harley had recovered enough to make it on their own they asked that the tariff be lifted early.
How Trumpanesque!
Reagan, like Trump, was a nationalist. He was the last nominee from either party who was. Today’s uniparty has no place for nationalists in either wing.
He also put a tariff on lumber out of Canada. US producers merely raised their prices to match or almost match the taxed Canadian products. It was stupid, as are most tariffs. The Canadian lumber and the US varied widely in quality.
The Harley one was really stupid. At the time, the Japanese had nothing that really was in the Harley market. Harley too raised their prices when the tariff was in place. Now Harley people will pay most anything for a Harley and the associated paraphernalia. I tell my homeschooler that the path to wealth is to come up with something that every Harley rider has to have.
No proofreading at the NYT.700 cubic inch road bikes?Now that would be a real Hawg.
You just ain’t gonna beat a Japanese Kawasaki H2.
Get used to it and get one of each if you can still throw a leg over either one. Let the good times roll ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY2z_3xYYgI&list=RDSWY47W_K8c8&index=8
Your plan is a good one.
But selling a 30 cent coffee for 3 bucks is way more profitable.
Aim for Starbux, not Harley.
Did Reagan take this tariff and make it a blanket policy, or did the rest of his term did he do the opposite?
Motorcycle Tariff Hikes Ended
Associated Press
October 09, 1987
WASHINGTON — President Reagan today removed the tariff increases on heavyweight motorcycles he ordered four years ago, saying the action will not harm the domestic motorcycle industry.
The tariff hikes were imposed April 15, 1983, at the request of Harley Davidson Inc., the only U.S. manufacturer of heavyweight cycles. Harley Davidson later asked that the increases be removed as no longer necessary, and Reagan has often pointed to this as demonstrating that more restrictive trade laws are not needed.
SOURCE:
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-10-09/news/mn-8697_1_motorcycle-tariff
These tariffs were temporary and were phased out over a five year schedule. The tariffs were successful in giving HD some breathing space. It’s not clear that these tariffs provide a lot of justification for tariffs except in very limited circumstances. For example, why do these HD tariffs, which affected only a very small part of the industrial base and very few consumers, justify imposing tariffs on something as broad as trade with China? Or, are these tariffs on Chinese goods expected to phase out over five years?
A good reminder, I’d forgotten about this.
We need to stop being the stupid people...
Did anyone tell Mark “I was a Reagan appointee” Levin about this? I guess it wouldn’t make any difference to the new and improved “Cheap Labor Express” Levin.
I started collecting bikes back in 2009, bought a 1980 Honda cx500, then two months later a new Yamaha 1300 cruiser, and shortly after that they seemed to just fall in my lap, at one point up to last fall i had 18 motorcycles, my top 5 are all big cruisers like two GL1500 Goldwings, two Yamaha Venture Royales, i had a nice Virago 750 and a Yamaha Vmax, sold them.
But never a Harley. Sure everyone wants one, you cannot get an older one cheap. But the metric bikes are a dime a dozen, and the Goldwings are very easy to maintain, doesn’t matter if they have over 100,000 miles, they keep on running. The ones i have are totally ready to ride cross country. They run so well that i have not had a strong reason to buy a newer Goldwing.
It just depends on build design and quality. And no i won’t knock Harley bikes, if anything i would love to buy an Indian, now that is a collectible bike!
“The Canadian lumber and the US varied widely in quality.”
Really? Explain to everyone how a rough cut Canadian white pine 5/4 board differed in quality from a rough cut American white pine 5/4 board.
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