Supply Chain Research

The 4Q earnings reports for Harley Davidson and Whirlpool illustrate the varying challenges being faced by U.S. businesses as a result of the wide variety of tariffs applied by the administration of President Donald Trump. Harley Davidson’s CFO, James Olin, expects a mixture of EU tariffs on motorcycle exports and duties on U.S. component imports to cut up to $120 million, or 15%, from pre-tax profits in 2019. U.S. exports of motorcycles by all manufacturers fell 36.1% year over year in 4Q 2018. Whirlpool meanwhile was a beneficiary of tariffs applied in January 2018 on imports of washin...