Only united we can do something against the unjust Harley-Davidson punitive tariffs!
Originally I wanted to stay out of this whole political circus, on the one hand I wondered why the Harley-Davidson On the other hand, the situation is now so explosive that it no longer matters why, wherefore and why this is now the case.
What should be done first!
This Link opens in an external window, where you can access the petition against the Harley-Davidson punitive tariffs. It is important that you take part, we should get at least 50,000 together, we are now at about 9200. First name, last name, e-mail and city, without street is enough and you are in the H-D team against the punitive tariffs.
The current situation is precarious!
Harley-Davidson USA wants to take legal action against the tightening of the punitive tariffs, which would create a distortion of competition that is not acceptable. It is basically a EU Posse, what kind of plan is behind this anyway? It's not as if Harley-Davidson only brings its goods to the EU and markets them directly to the customer. There are close structures throughout Europe, there are 369 authorized Harley-Davidson dealers in the EU who are absolutely dependent on Harley-Davidson's ability to deliver. It cannot be in the interests of the EU to destroy entire structures here.
Airbus and Boeing were granted deferrals
In the dispute between Boeing and Airbus, the punitive tariffs were suspended for 4 months back in March. Harley-Davidson must also be given this opportunity. It is precisely this demand that we must now push through together, because a company like Harley-Davidson really has no place in the transatlantic dispute between the EU and the USA. Every strike against Harley-Davidson also affects a European citizen.
Inquiry at the Federal Ministry of Economics on the subject of Harley-Davidson punitive tariffs
At the end of April, I asked our Federal Minister of Economics, Peter Altmaier, what specific measures are now being taken to suspend or avoid the increase in punitive tariffs.
Harleysite Request to the BMWi dated 29.04.2021
The Binding Origin Information was withdrawn from Harley-Davidson by decision of the EU on March 31, 2021 with effect from April 19. As a result, customs duties will increase by a further 50 percent in June 2021 to a total of 56 percent import duties. In the summer, Federal Minister Peter Altmeyer had 2019 announced an agreement at the turn of the year on 2020, with the USA. To date, nothing has happened in this area, although there is now even a new US President, Joe Biden. On the contrary, the situation for Harley-Davidson will become even worse in June 2021.
The Harley-Davidson CEO, Jochen Zeitz has announced that it will take legal action against the tightening. In view of the fact that there are 369 Harley-Davidson dealerships in the EU, 67 of which are in Germany This is definitely a problem for the German Harley-Davidson dealerships.
I am now specifically concerned about the 67 German H-D authorized dealers, what will Peter Altmaier say to them if they no longer receive goods from the USA, or if their prices rise exorbitantly.
Are solutions being sought, such as those that have been agreed with Boeing/Airbus, where the punitive tariffs have been waived for the next four months in order to negotiate new agreements during this time?
Will Mr. Peter Altmaier stand up for the German H-D dealers? And what options can be considered?.
Reply from the Federal Ministry of Economics on 04.05 2021
Thank you for your inquiry. The BMWi would like to inform you:
The BMWi strongly supports the efforts of the European Commission to resolve the difficulties that have increasingly arisen in trade relations with the USA in recent years. An encouraging example of this is the agreement you mentioned to suspend the respective (counter) measures in the Airbus and Boeing WTO disputes.
We also support the European Commission in its goal of quickly finding a viable solution to the EU's rebalancing measures. If the US measures are terminated, the EU rebalancing measures would also be terminated immediately in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 724/2018 and Regulation (EU) No 886/2018 (Art. 3 (1) - Regulation (EU) No 724/2018).
The BMWi is very keen to find an amicable solution. We have repeatedly emphasized that such a solution would benefit exporters, importers, processors and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic equally. We therefore support the European Commission's efforts to reach an agreement with the USA, including in all our own talks with the US side.
Conclusion so far!
We read that efforts are being made at the Federal Office, nobody wants to have that on their job reference, so more pressure simply has to be built up at this point, because in the end it affects us all. It is clear that the European Harley-Davidson customer will end up paying for the European Union's questionable strategy.
What other options are there?
What other options are there? The Harley-Davidson dealers and even the customer must now become uncomfortable, in every district there are EU parliamentarians and members of the Bundestag who are supposed to represent our interests, regional councillors, etc. You can politely ask them what they intend to do!
The petition is one way to get involved and write to your regional politicians, they want to be re-elected.
Harley-Davidson can only win the battle with its fan community behind it!
Now you need time, the first milestone is 4 months deferral, Boeing and Airbus have also been granted this! That should be manageable!
So write, like, share, comment and get things moving! Especially on Twitter, where our politicians are out and about, use the hashtag „PeterAltmaierHarleyDavidson“!
The lobby of the motorcycle scene is almost zero, it's time we changed that!
Hashtags:
#peteraltmaierharleydavidson #peteraltmaier #harleydavidson #harleysite #harleysitenews
Another report on the subject of Harley-Davidson punitive tariffs
