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  • 2018-03-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Harley-Davidson Close a Wisconsin Factory to Move Production to Thailand Due to New Steel Tariffs? (en)
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  • Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson could face new challenges in the wake of President Donald Trump's sudden decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum in March 2018. However, a subsequent viral Facebook post exaggerated these challenges, appearing to conflate the announcement with old news stories about Harley-Davidson's past business decisions: This Facebook post is largely based on a 9 March 2018 MSNBC segment that featured reporter Garrett Haake speaking with employees at a Harley Davidson plant in Kansas City, Missouri. Some viewers, including the above Facebook poster, may have been confused by the segment, as it did not clearly state that Harley-Davidson first announced that this plant would be closing in January 2018 — more than a month before Trump made his tariff decision. It is true that some American companies have expressed concern about how new tariffs may affect their business going forward. It is also true that Harley-Davidson will soon be closing a plant in Kansas City, Missouri. However, these items are not directly related. In fact, Harley has planned on consolidating production at the Kansas City plant since 2015, before Trump was even in office; when the company made the announcement, it said that it was due to slowing motorcycle sales: Additionally, Harley-Davidson announced in 2017 that it would be opening a manufacturing plant in Thailand. However, Harley said at the time that the decision was made to better serve the burgeoning market in southeast Asia, and that the decision would not affect manufacturing in the United States: The company released a statement in March 2018 saying that these tariffs, as well as tariffs imposed in retaliation by the European Union, could directly hurt their business: (en)
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