Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems on subsequent to U.S. President Donald Trump speaking to the media, on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Two firms led by billionaire DOGE chief Elon Musk — SpaceX and Tesla — have submitted letters lobbying the U.S. commerce consultant on Trump administration tariff insurance policies.
The letters come as Musk oversees an effort to slash federal authorities spending and worker headcount on the behest of President Donald Trump.
On the similar time, Trump is imposing stiff tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, with China and Canada firing again with retaliatory tariffs.
Tesla, in its unsigned letter to U.S. Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer, referred to these retaliatory levies as a risk to the electrical car firm’s backside line.
The letter inspired Greer “to contemplate the downstream impacts of sure proposed actions taken to deal with unfair commerce practices.”
“Whereas Tesla acknowledges and helps the significance of honest commerce, the evaluation undertaken by USTR of
potential actions to rectify unfair commerce must also keep in mind exports from the US,” mentioned the letter, which was submitted by Tesla’s affiliate normal counsel Miriam Eqab.
“U.S. exporters are inherently uncovered to disproportionate impacts when different nations reply to U.S. commerce actions.”
SpaceX, in its personal letter to Greer, mentioned that it “faces a variety of regulatory complexities and commerce boundaries in each nation that the U.S. Authorities ought to search to deal with in an effort to assist continued U.S. management within the area area.”
The letter famous that the corporate should pay overseas governments for entry to spectrum and import duties for its Starlink satellite tv for pc web gear, and different charges that “considerably enhance the price of working in these nations — artificially.”
“The import duties paid in a handful of nations characterize a major value enhance for Starlink merchandise in these nations, regardless of the US having primarily no duties on comparable overseas merchandise which can be imported into the US to serve prospects right here,” wrote Mat Dunn, SpaceX’s senior director of world enterprise and authorities affairs, within the letter.
“As President Trump has famous with different sectors, it is a vital drawback to U.S. firms.
Tesla and SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from CNBC about their letters.
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