Harley-Davidson could move manufacturing to India: US report

The iconic motorcycle company has manufacturing facilities in Brazil, Thailand and India. India has become a very important market for the Wisconsin-based company after the country became the largest producer of motorcycles last year.

Harley-Davidson had opened its manufacturing hub in Gurgaon in 2009 under the Obama administration and has been producing several models for the European market, the US newspaper said.

The company does not have any manufacturing facility in Europe. Although Harley did not confirm about its next move, the newspaper said "Trump's trade disputes would have done little to save Harley-Davidson's U.S. jobs", it added that "in fact, they may end up helping to move them to the country he wanted to defend the company against."

Trump took the "tariff war" to India on Tuesday pointing out that "India charges as much as 100 per cent tariff", he called for the removal of tariffs.

The US president had mentioned India with regards to tariffs in February when he said "India gets away with" charging high tariffs for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Trump had blamed India for charging 50 to 60 per cent tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

"I don't know why people allowed them to get away with it. But there's an example that's very unfair," the president had said. India had ultimately slashed tariffs by 50 per cent, but the US newspaper said Trump was "still wasn't happy".

However, the US newspaper pointed out that "motorcycles don't even merit a mention in the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry's data on exports to the United States" and the vast majority of the Harley motorcycles sold in India is made in the Gurgaon facility, "so the Indian tariffs don't apply to them anyway", it said.

"The man occupying the most important office in the world was trying to fix a problem that didn't really exist at the time."

"Now, it does," the newspaper added ominously.