Tariff fight worrisome in city lifted by BMW

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — In the middle of David Britt’s campaign to get BMW to put a car factory in Spartanburg, a man grabbed him by the tie while he was in a restaurant.

“Don’t give that land to the Germans,” the man hissed to Britt, a county official.

Two decades later, the automaker has become the most important local job creator, earning the affection of a deep-red county where 1 in 10 people earns a living making vehicles or their parts.

The Spartanburg plant is BMW’s biggest in the world. It has helped draw more than 200 companies from two dozen countries to Spartanburg County. And the German company — not an American icon like Ford or General Motors — is now the largest exporter of cars made in the United States, turning the port of Charleston, South Carolina, into a hub for global trade.

But by setting off a global trade battle, President Donald Trump is threatening the town’s livelihood. People aren’t happy.

“BMW saved Spartanburg and transformed South Carolina into a manufacturing mecca to the world,” said Britt, a member of the county council. “When you mess with the golden goose, they’re family, and you’re messing with me.”

On Thursday, the Commerce Department held a hearing in Washington on whether imported cars and car parts harm national security, the premise of an administration plan to impose hefty duties. If imposed, the tariffs would most likely have deeper and wider-reaching repercussions for the economy than levies on fish or steel. Cars don’t come together in one plant, with one workforce — they’re the final result Inside Page F1