[GlennF]

Not sure if its a Brexit thing but Triumph are moving pretty much all remaining mass manufacturing to Thailand.

https://www.rideapart.com/articles/400402/triumph-motorcycles-production-line-thailand/

[Adrian II]

Just another casualty of globalism. 

A.

[mrunderhill1975a]

Yes, globalism......more is yet to come. However, can they keep quality up?  For example, the original west built master clutch cylinder on my jeep lasted 20 years.  When it was replaced with a part from Jhina, it failed within a year.  Worse  yet was a heater valve, original equipment lasted 22 years, the Jhina replacement lasted 90 days before it left me stranded on the Bonneville salt flats. 
Another worry for me is Artificial Intelligence.  Soon to come robot truck/lory drivers,  what are the truck/lory drivers to do for work? Code...? This attack on low skill workers in the west is in large part of how Thrump got elected. Same for Brexit, more carnage to come.

[GlennF]

Apparently the limited edition Thruxton TFC factory specials are still being made in the UK but everything else is moving offshore.

[Ove]

They've managed quality control out of Asia well enough for a number of years. Everyone's doing it now. HD closing Kansas for overseas production to avoid the Trump trade war tariffs. Even the major Japanese factories use lower cost / lower tariff overseas production sites.

Volvo cars are all from China now.

Just continuing a trend started 50 years ago. Even earlier in RE India's case.

[Kevin Mahoney]

I want to tread very lightly here - When Harley wanted to come to India they were refused - period. Yet our beloved RE's could come to the US.
Without getting into the long details Harley opened a plant in India because of the tariffs that India made them pay just to import their bikes. As much as 150%.
How if that fair? We allow Indian products into the US duty-free yet they do not reciprocate. Why? Simple answer because they could. The tariffs ensured that manufacturing had to be done in India if you wanted to compete

Not a pro-Trump post but.... fair is fair. Same thing with China. If let their stuff in for no duty why should our businesses pay duty to bring things into China?
I could have added 10 full-time good-paying jobs with full benefits if the tariffs were fair. We had a lot of calls for items that we sold in India. It is a huge market but we could not do it because of the import duties imposed by India. Yet I was bringing in items from there for free. You can have cheap Chinese/Indian prices or you can have jobs not both

[Bilgemaster]

I want to tread very lightly here - When Harley wanted to come to India they were refused - period. Yet our beloved RE's could come to the US.
Without getting into the long details Harley opened a plant in India because of the tariffs that India made them pay just to import their bikes. As much as 150%.
How if that fair? We allow Indian products into the US duty-free yet they do not reciprocate. Why? Simple answer because they could. The tariffs ensured that manufacturing had to be done in India if you wanted to compete

Not a pro-Trump post but.... fair is fair. Same thing with China. If let their stuff in for no duty why should our businesses pay duty to bring things into China?
I could have added 10 full-time good-paying jobs with full benefits if the tariffs were fair. We had a lot of calls for items that we sold in India. It is a huge market but we could not do it because of the import duties imposed by India. Yet I was bringing in items from there for free. You can have cheap Chinese/Indian prices or you can have jobs not both

Just to underscore our man Kevin's observations about the lack of a level playing field between here and yonder (India and China), tariffs aside, I don't believe most folks are aware of the fact that every time they mail even a domestic letter or package, part of that postage goes towards subsidizing that free shipping one often gets on those gimcracks from the east on eBay, Alibaba, Amazon and so forth.

Under the Universal Postal Union and subsequent special ePacket agreements of 2011, once a package hits our shores, its delivery from port to door is on us. Nobody adores those cheap Chinese doodads more than I, but I'm also the first to admit that it's gotta be a real gut punch for our homegrown vendors and manufacturers here when some guy in Shenzhen can send his wares to New Jersey cheaper than some guy in New York.

I'm led to understand that something is at last being done about it, and that is probably best for us in the long term. For more background and details on ongoing changes, click here.

[GlennF]

ironically a large disparity in tariffs between two countries could be fixed EITHER by matching the tariffs OR by a free trade agreement.

Though for a high labor cost country like the US a free trade agreement would probably need to offer some other benefits such as enforcement of copyright and patent claims etc to be attractive.

Interestingly one of the biggest issues here in Australia with ecommerce versus bricks and mortar stores is the customer service of ecommerce shanghai storefronts is often better than the local guy as they get goods so cheap they can afford to instantly refund on complaints or just ship a new one whereas the bricks and mortar store is forced to struggle with the manufacturers warranty and return system.