House Speaker Paul Ryan called President Donald Trump’s tariffs “basically taxes” on Tuesday — a day after Wisconsin-based Harley-Davidson said it would move some motorcycle production overseas because of retaliatory penalties from the European Union.
“I think tariffs are basically taxes,” the Wisconsin Republican said during a press conference with House GOP leaders. “What ends up happening is you get escalating tariffs or escalating taxes.”
Ryan said Trump’s imposing of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports could eventually wipe out any benefits companies gained by the president’s tax cuts.
“One of the reasons we did tax reform was to make it easier for businesses to keep manufacturing in America and export overseas,” Ryan said.
He acknowledged that some countries take advantage of their trading partners but said there are other ways than tariffs to handle that.
“There are unfair trading practices, no two ways about it, by other countries. I think it’s in our interest to use other tools to go after those unfair trading practices to stop other countries from dumping, from cheating, from stealing … but I think there are better tools than tariff increases.”
Harley-Davidson said it would shift some production to overseas factories after the European Union tariffs increased the cost of one of their motorcycles by $2,200.