BMW’s Greer plant just had a record year, according to GSA Business Report, producing 411,171 X model vehicles. That shouldn’t be surprising, considering the economy picked up in 2016 and the Greer plant is BMW’s largest plant in the world. But President-elect Donald Trump directly singled-out BMW as a company that he would impose a tariff of up to 35% if they exported cars to the US from Mexico. So what impact would that have? It’s hard to say.
It could be positive. If BMW decides that they don’t want to risk the tariff, considering their good business relationship with the Upstate, maybe they expand the Greer plant or add other plants in the region instead of outsourcing to Mexico. Such a move would have an immensely positive economic impact in the Upstate.
But it’s also possible that they ignore President Trump, resulting in him imposing a tariff, which, if it hurt BMW’s business (which seems likely), would likely decrease production at the Greer plant. This result would obviously deal a major blow to our local economy.
It’s hard to know which scenario would happen, but it’s also no certainty that President Trump would move forward with the tariff threat or that, if he did move forward, he would get Congressional approval for it. Let’s hope that whatever happens is good for our economy.