American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 228 July 2018 | Page 6

NEWS
BRIEFS
Kenny Price’s Samson Exhaust is now
under the ownership of OnCourse
Capital of Fort Wayne and has been
relocated from Sturgis, South Dakota,
to Avilla, Indiana. Price founded his
company in California in 1991, and at
one stage Samson was one of the top
selling exhaust brands in the custom
parts market. OnCourse Capital has
over 30 years of experience in metal
fabrication and tube forming. It is the
former owners of Global Tube Form
(which did business under the names
of National Tube Form and Southern
Tube Form and operated facilities in
Clinton, TN, and Fort Wayne, IN). It
acquired Samson Exhaust in the
fourth quarter of 2017.
Polaris has announced it is to
open a new distribution center
in Fernley, Nevada, 165 miles NE
of Sacramento, California. The
475,000 sq ft facility will be a
multi-brand operation on a 37-
acre site, supporting Polaris’
growing aftermarket, parts,
garments and accessories
businesses. Its PG&A division
achieved nearly $2 billion in
sales in 2017. Proximity to west
coast consumers and Pacific Rim
facing ports are cited as factors
in the choice of location.
MAG has promoted Rob Ramlose (ex
of Oakley and Fox Racing) to Director
of Apparel Brands (a role at one stage
held by apparel industry veteran and
ex Leatt man Phil Davy). His new role
sees him adding to his responsibility
for the RSD apparel program with
control of all brands in the MAG
apparel portfolio - additionally
including Answer Racing, Speed and
Strength, Firstgear and Black Brand -
the latter formerly headed up by the
now departed ex S&S and PriMedia
man Howard Kelly.
<<< Continued from cover
motorcycles accessible to customers in
the EU and maintain a viable business
in Europe. Europe is a critical market
for Harley-Davidson.
In 2017, nearly 40,000 riders bought
new Harley-Davidson motorcycles in
Europe, and the revenue generated
from the EU countries is second only
to the U.S.
Harley-Davidson’s purpose is to fulfill
dreams of personal freedom for
customers who live in the European
Union and across the world, and the
company remains fully engaged with
government officials in both the U.S.
and the EU helping to find sustainable
solutions to trade issues and rescind all
tariffs that restrict free and fair trade.
Harley-Davidson will provide more
details of the financial implications
and plans to mitigate the impact of
retaliatory EU tariffs during the
company’s second quarter earnings
conference call on July 24, 2018, at
8:00AM CDT.
The EU tariffs on
American-made
motorcycles were
only 6 percent
before the U.S.
imposed steel
and aluminum
tariffs
For the record...
A lot has been said and written
about EU tariff levels and the
damage that multilateral trade
agreements have on individual
national economies.
In fact, the concept of
multilateralism is largely an
American construct. The EU uses
WTO tariff guidelines - most
nations do. The 6% on imported
motorcycles is based on the WTO
recommended minimum and in
fact is the same or even lower
than the tariffs the EU charges
on motorcycle imports from
elsewhere, including Japan. It is
kind of the international entry-
level baseline tariff.
Had negations for TTIP
continued then, as would have
been the case with the TPP with
Asia, the tariff levels would
certainly have been reduced (if
not eliminated altogether),
giving US manufacturers
preferential access to EU (and
Asian) markets, relative to their
competitors.
The WTO is also, largely, an
American construct. It is an
intergovernmental organization
which regulates international
trade. From 1995 it replaced the
General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) that came into
being in 1948 as a result of the
summer 1944 Eisenhower
administration sponsored
Bretton Woods system. Signed
by all 44 of the WWII allies, the
Truman administration
implemented system of
agreements also brought the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and, ultimately, the World
Bank into existence.
Bretton Woods was the first
example of a fully negotiated
monetary order intended to
govern monetary relations
among independent states.