The 1983 motorcycle tariff, or Memorandum on Heavyweight Motorcycle Imports, was a presidential memorandum ordering a 45% tariff on heavyweight motorcycles imported to the United States, signed by President Ronald Reagan on April 1, 1983, on the US International Trade Commission's (USITC) recommendation to approve Harley-Davidson's petition for import relief.[1] The tariff expired in 1988.[2]
Farnsworth 1983 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Harley again requested federal assistance in 1982, this time citing Article XIX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1974, better known as 'the escape clause.'