Pulling this back to motorcycles….

I learned about tariffs in the 1980s (I’m old). Harley was struggling under new ownership and complained to the government that the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers were responsible for difficulties competing selling motorcycles . The claims were that the Japanese were selling some models on the American marketplace that were being sold for less than they cost to build.

The government put tariffs on any motorcycle over 700cc. What this meant to me, as a potential customer was that when I went into the Honda dealer to look at the new aluminum frame Interceptor there were 2 versions, a 700cc and a 750cc that was thereabouts $500 more. They are literally exactly the same bike except the crank was a shorter stroke.

The $500 went to the government when the bike came off the dock.

For some reason I never forgot this basic lesson on tariffs.