Bad News for Manufacturers and Consumers
The most recent tariffs in the trade war between the U.S. and Europe could end up impacting the motorcycle industry. According to CycleNews, the Trump administration proposed $11 billion in EU tariffs. Of the list of products in that proposal, motorcycles and motorcycle parts and accessories are listed. This also includes scooters and mopeds.
The proposed 100 percent tariffs could seriously impact European motorcycle manufacturers. KTM, Ducati, Triumph, Vespa, and others could see the negative impacts of these tariffs. There’s no doubt that the EU would issue retaliatory measures and impose similar tariffs of their own.
Luckily the motorcycle tariff only applies to 500cc to 700cc motorcycles, which is kind of odd. That’s only a part of the market, and I would have expected more motorcycles to be targeted. Still, this could hurt many European bike makers as they do have bikes that fall into that category.
What’s more troubling than the motorcycle tariffs is the parts and accessories tariffs. These will have an effect on the entire motorcycling community no matter what size bike you ride. As RideApart points out, tariffs have a long history of collateral damage. While I don’t want to get into the politics of the situation, it just sucks that motorcycles have to be brought into the mix here.