While the Ford Motor Co. recently reported a loss of $1 billion as a result of Trump's trade war, BMW says they've lost $347 at just one single factory and they expect to lose $579 million per year if Trump's trade war doesn't end.
The largest BMW factory in the world is located in South Carolina and Volvo also employs a significant number of Americans in the palmetto state, but The Post and Courier reports that Trump's trade war is causing significant problems for both automakers.
More specifically, and ironically, Volvo says they're going to shift some production from South Carolina to China because Trump's trade war has made it impractical to export from South Carolina to China.
Volvo had planned to export locally made S60s through the Port of Charleston to China, but said that won’t be feasible due to 40 percent tariffs China has imposed on U.S.-made vehicles.
“China will have to build up its own plant” to handle S60 production, Anders Gustafsson, Volvo’s head of U.S. operations, told the website. “I need to find a substitute for the volumes” that would have gone to China, he said.
Meanwhile, a BMW executive said China’s tariffs will cost its plant in Greer about $347 million in lost earnings this year. Nicolas Peter, the automaker’s chief financial officer, told Automobilwoche the losses could top $579 million annually if the tariffs stay in effect.
BMW's factory in Greer, South Carolina -- which is their largest factory in the world employing 10,000 Americans -- posted a 6.2 percent decline in production in September according to the Post and Courier.
This would be a good time for South Carolina's representatives in Congress to stick up for their constituents, but unfortunately for them Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott are both yes-men who support everything Trump says or does. Likewise, the state's conservative delegation in the House of Representatives, which includes noted shitbirds Trey Gowdy and Joe "You Lie" Wilson, is a lost cause.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on Bloomberg this morning where he said the Senate has allowed Trump to wage a trade war with China because it could improve relations with China in the long-term at the cost of short-term hardship, but there's no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. No one is winning.