Kevin Williamson of National Review Online sides with Harley-Davidson in its confrontation with the Trump administration over plans to build more Harleys overseas.
Harley-Davidson, like the Pilgrims, finds itself at odds with the authorities. In this case, it is the Trump administration, which is displeased with the Motor Company’s decision to shift some additional production overseas. The proximate cause of that decision is tariffs imposed by the European Union in retaliation for tariffs imposed on European goods by the Trump administration. Trade wars cause a great deal of collateral damage.
Harley-Davidson already operates facilities in Brazil, India, and Australia, and it has plans for a factory in Thailand. Avoiding protectionist measures drives some of that, but so do other factors, including proximity to customers. … The president has sternly warned the company that there will be consequences for its decision to move some production to Europe.
“Don’t get cute with us!” he said.
What is Harley-Davidson supposed to do? Lose a few hundred million dollars while it waits for the Trump administration to get it right on trade? Because that day probably is not coming. …
… Americans are mobile. We always have been. American capital is mobile, too. A couple of years ago, the Obama administration became briefly fixed on “corporate inversions,” a maneuver by which U.S. firms merged with overseas acquisitions to escape the unreasonably heavy burdens of the U.S. corporate-income tax, which was, until recently, one of the highest in the world. They weren’t fleeing to reincorporate in Caribbean tax havens — they were going to Ireland, Canada, and Switzerland, among other destinations. The Trump administration and congressional Republicans got it mostly right on corporate taxes, removing a considerable disincentive for doing business in the United States. They should take the right lesson from that experience.
