As if the Trump Administration's ever-changing tariffs weren't confusing enough, it has now expanded the 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to include 407 categories of items derived from these materials. According to Bloomberg, these include everything from baby booster seats to furniture components to motorcycles. Prices of imported motorcycles may be about to skyrocket as a result of no longer being safe from tariffs. Commenters on Reddit were quick to call this measure protection for
Harley-Davidson's continuing troubles, but the truth is more complicated than that.
The details about how these tariffs will be implemented are confusing, but here's what we know. According to the notice from the Bureau of Industry and Security, it has added 407 product codes to the existing steel and aluminum tariff to include items "that will be considered as steel or aluminum derivative products." Four of these codes are related to motorcycles. Code 8711.30 is for motorcycles and mopeds between 250 cc and 500 cc displacement. Code 8711.50 is for motorcycles and mopeds between 800 cc and 970 cc. Code 8711.60 is for electric cycles below 250 watts of output. Finally, code 8714.10 covers motorcycle parts, which unfortunately affects all bikes.
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It's As Clear As Mud
There are holes in this tariff strategy that are big enough to ride a midsize motorcycle through. For some reason they exclude code 8711.40 for bikes between 500 cc and 800 cc, a popular category, as well as liter bikes and above. However, a lot of beginner bikes could suffer due to their smaller engines.
According to the notice from the Bureau of Industry and Security, "Steel and aluminum tariffs based on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (Section 232) will apply to the steel and aluminum content." In other words, rather than a flat 50% tax on the entire bike, the tax only applies to the amount of imported steel and aluminum used in the motorcycle. This is sure to leave distributors, wholesalers, and customs officials scrambling to figure out exactly how much the tax is supposed to be.
We've focused on motorcycles here, but just about everything these days has a bit of steel or aluminum in it, so just about everything is about to get even more expensive. This is another level of needless complexity in an already convoluted arrangement of taxes and tariffs. But there's no convincing the Trump Administration of that. "It has been clear for many months that new products could be treated as steel and aluminum derivatives," said White House spokesman Kush Desai in a statement to Bloomberg. "Today's action should not come as a surprise."
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