Harley-Davidson tried to avoid European customs and tariffs when it moved a production plant to Thailand. However, the EU sued them and reimposed the tariffs.
When Donald Trump came to power in the US eight years ago, he introduced trade tariffs against the EU, which in his opinion was flooding the American market with far too cheap goods, which then led to import duties from the EU on American goods, including a tariff of 25% off Harley-Davidsons.
In Wisconsin, however, they thought they had found a way to avoid the tariffs and reduce production costs by moving production to Thailand. A win-win, Harley thought. In Thailand the costs for production are a lot lower and these levies did not apply to Thailand.
There was only one problem with that plan. The EU knew what game Harley was playing and then sued the company for essentially trying to outpace the EU. Well, that case is finally solved and, wouldn’t you know it, Harley lost.
According to the Court of Justice of the EU, “the case arose after Harley-Davidson moved part of its motorcycle production from the US to Thailand after the EU imposed additional 25% customs duties on motorcycles from the US.” However, this was deemed “primarily aimed at avoiding these rights and deemed economically unjustified under Article 33 of Delegated Regulation 2015/2446.”
Harley appealed, stating that the move was purely intended to increase efficiency within the company. However, the EU disagreed, stating: “The court found that Harley-Davidson had not provided sufficient evidence that the switch was primarily motivated by economic efficiency and not by regulatory avoidance. Although companies are free to make decisions to optimize their operations, moves that are aligned with EU measures are subject to extra scrutiny.”
So even though the Harleys imported from Thailand are built in Thailand, which does not have the same trade duties as US goods, they are still considered US goods because Harley-Davidson is an American company.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.