Driving on Interstate 85 between Atlanta and Charlotte through the northern third of South Carolina, aka the “Upstate,” you’ll definitely see that giant peach-shaped water tower in Gaffney that looks like, er, something else. But after you’re done laughing (or cringing) at this symbol of the state’s domestic agriculture industry, you won’t be able to miss the displays of globalization. Not crumbling shells of industrial towns but big signs with international corporations who have expanded operations to the Palmetto State and made the region a thriving hub of economic activity.
There’s Michelin, the French tire manufacturer with its North American headquarters outside of Greenville. South Carolinians make tires for cars, buses, trucks, and construction equipment in seven different plants in the state. The first manufacturing plant for South Korean giant Samsung opened last year less than an hour south of Greenville, where workers make washing machines. The crown jewel of the 85 corridor is the BMW factory in Greer, which is the German automaker’s most productive assembly plant in the world, and the only one in the United States. Every BMW crossover SUV is made in South Carolina.
So it was a little jarring to hear President Donald Trump, making an appearance Monday night in the state capital of Columbia on behalf of Republican governor Henry McMaster’s reelection bid, chastise the good people of Bayerische Motoren Werke for sending their cars to the United States. Not surprising, though, since Trump’s administration has threatened the European Union with 20 percent tariffs on automobile imports, causing the stocks of German car companies (including BMW) to plummet.
Trump isn’t wrong that BMW builds its non-crossover SUVs in Europe and then ships them to consumers here. The company sells a lot of vehicles in Europe, but it’s in America where the demand for crossovers is highest, and it turns out it was good business for BMW to make them in America, too. South Carolina, like its southern neighbors who have also attracted foreign automakers to locate plants in their states, has relatively cheaper labor costs (i.e. no unions), a better business climate, and a low-cost, high-standard of living. There’s also a nearby port in Charleston as well as access to that I-85 corridor.
The result of the plant’s opening nearly 25 years ago isn’t just that thousands in Upstate South Carolina are employed by BMW. There are other supportive industries in the area—manufacturing, services, consulting—that have grown out of and depend on BMW’s presence. The roads off I-85 between Greenville and Spartanburg are full of industrial parks that are directly tied to business with the big plant in Greer.
But to Trump, BMW and other European car manufacturers have contributed to the United States “losing” $151 billion, as he repeated Monday. What he’s really referring to here is the trade deficit, which, as trade experts will tell you, doesn’t assign a value of what the United States has “lost.” In fact, it’s investments by foreign companies such as BMW that help drive up our trade deficit—or, if you prefer, our investment surplus.
Much of the coverage of the president’s victory nearly two years ago has focused on voters in the Rust Belt who have been left behind by globalization and turned to Trump (as they had to Obama in 2008) for change. But South Carolina, where Trump got nearly 55 percent of the vote, has a population that has been undoubtedly buoyed by the forces of trade and a globalized economy.
The homegrown Harley-Davidson is preparing to start making some of its motorcycles in Europe in response to the retaliatory tariffs. Trump claimed Monday to be “surprised” by Harley-Davidson’s announcement. Will he be just as surprised if BMW, or any of the other European companies operating in South Carolina or elsewhere in the United States, makes a similar calculation? And what, then, would happen to Trump’s political support in a place like South Carolina?
