US Commerce department: car imports into U.S. are national security threat

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/02/business/us-raises-tariff-for-motorcycles.html

 

Don't blame me, I voted against Trump twice.

 

Then you ar enot blamed by me... if you don't agree for this "planed" nonsese in my OP

 

Lol ... this is quite something different as what you wrote ... these were punitative tariffs put on Japs bikes and no one was begging Japan here!

 

The steel industry is not dying in china or other foreign companies who want to sell us their cheap crap

Liberals just want to be consumers without producing anything of lasting value

 

Right ... Woooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... Subsidies for parts of the economy are like a red scarf for many of Trump's ultra-conservative supporters in the US ... because it is a nasty socialist and state interference in the free market. So, if somebody from this political corner suddenly thinks they are good, they make a fool of themselves.

 

When the tariffs wore lifted one of the conditions were that they would not produce a Vtwin over 750CC, The tariffs themselves were not enough to stop the development of Vtwins

 

Did Japanese develop these engines and gave a crap on US begging not to do? Yes, they did ...

 

America stopped making cars some time ago, they are now simply assembled in the US from foreign made sub assemblies. Even the iconic Harley Davidson cannot put "Made in the USA" on their bikes anymore due to only the engine and frame and a handful of smaller components actually being made here. The brakes and clutch are from Italy, wheels from Australia, suspension from Japan and the electrics from all over Asia.
As for quality German engineering, if you check most of the German brands destined for the US are made in Mexico then shipped across the border.

 

There is a lot of truth

Many of the parts in American products are made offshore and shipped to America for final assembly

And its costing American jobs

 

Quit the free market crap- it is not a free market if it ftariffs favors one nations over the other.

yes, but they gave Harley a break to modernize. Now they may have given the break in part to limit the tariffs. I am in favor of tariffs and Nixon, Ford and Carter sold out our entire electronics industry to Japan in exchange for backing our asia policies.

 

Well said

We made concessions to japan beause Cold Warriors wanted a strong japanese economy as a hedge against communism

 

I wish they would have stayed with a communist system, military wise we are vastly superior, economic wise they have turned the corner and will out pace us soon.

I love the idea of the trade war, but Trump is using the tariffs to run the government and not investments in US businesses staying here. He is using the tariffs to offset the tax cut that he gave to the rich and not to reinvestment in US manufacturing.

 

Who is the “they” you refer to?

At the time we considered the Soviet Union to be our biggest threat

 

China, And I am not talking about nixon/kissinger and the china card. I am talking about the chinese communists realizing that communism can not compete with capitalism after seeing the USSR destroyed trying to keep up.

 

I agree with that

But all they did was pass the mantel to liberals in America

 

Welcome to the realities ... a reality which we in Europe understood decades ago ...

Really? and why were these bikes then developed far before HD could and why were they sold to the rest of the world in this time? They did not stop development...

 

Because at that time in the 70s and 80s harley did not have an overseas market. The tariffs combined with the governmental pressure were just to keep Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki out of the US Vtwin market.
VTwins were not popular overseas as most foreign manufactures aligned cylinders side by side or Opposing like BMW and moto-guzzi.

Most Japanese brands went for smoother performance thru multiple cylinders.
A VTwin is not an optimum power plant performance wise Vtwin is just an esthetic.

 

And this pressure was dine by a punitative tariff against these bikes to make them extreme expensive = uninteresting to buy ... but not by begging Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda & Co. not to export into the USA.

 

Theyre a threat to union security thats for sure

 

And for sure it is your internal problem inside the USA when you are not able to make same Union "laws" amon the complete USA ... so the real security threat is your own inability