Moog Music, a North Carolina-based manufacturer of synthesizers and other electronic instruments, could follow Harley-Davison abroad as a result of President Trump’s trade war with China, the company warned customers.
The Asheville-based synth maker has launched a letter-writing campaign targeting lawmakers in light of an imminent import tax putting the company’s domestic operations and the future of its approximately 100 employees in question.
Roughly $34 billion worth of Chinese imports containing “industrially significant technologies” will become subject to a 25 percent import tax starting Friday, July 6, including circuit boards and associated components used by Moog to build instruments played by some of the world’s best-selling musical artists.
“Moog sources circuit boards from U.S. suppliers whenever possible, paying up to 30% over the price of the same circuit boards made overseas. However, whether they buy circuit boards in the U.S. or overseas, the majority of the raw components still come from China. Therefore, Moog will be unable to avoid this substantial cost increase because of the tariffs,” the company said Friday.
“These tariffs will immediately and drastically increase the cost of building Moog instruments, forcing them to lay off American workers and will require Moog to move some, if not all, of their manufacturing overseas,” Moog said in a letter it asked customers to share with four North Carolina Republicans: Rep. Mark Meadows, Rep. Patrick McHenry, Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Thom Tillis.
Representatives for Mr. Meadows, Mr. McHenry and Mr. Tillis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We don’t comment on our work on behalf of constituents, but we do consider all constituent requests and take them seriously,” a spokesperson for Mr. Burr told The Washington Times.
Inventor and engineer Robert Moog founded the company known today as Moog Music more than 60 years ago in New York City. His analog synthesizers and theremins were among the first electronic instruments of their kind to find mainstream success among pop musicians, and early Moog customers included The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Byrds and The Doors, among others.
Moog died in 2005 at the age of 71. Moog Music CEO Mike Adams sold 49 percent of the company’s stock to 62 employees in 2015 in preparation for eventually retiring.
The Trump administration announced tariffs on Chinese products last month “as part of the U.S. response to China’s unfair trade practices related to the forced transfer of American technology and intellectual property.” Chinese is slated to impose retaliatory tariffs in kind.
Last month, Harley-Davidson said the company will shift production of some motorcycles overseas to avoid retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union in response to the Trump administration’s latest trade policies.
The move “is not the company’s preference, but represents the only sustainable option to make its motorcycles accessible to customers in the E.U. and maintain a viable business in Europe,” Harley-Davison said last month.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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