Poppy Bilderbeck
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spoken out after Donald Trump announced plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles and automobile parts.
Yesterday (March 26), Trump revealed another tariff, this time, on imported passenger vehicles and light trucks as well as key automobile parts which will go into effect from April 2.
A White House fact sheet states the proclamation as 'addressing a critical threat to US national security' with Trump 'taking action to protect America’s automobile industry, which is vital to national security and has been undermined by excessive imports threatening America’s domestic industrial base and supply chains'.
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The White House details: "The 25 percent tariff will be applied to imported passenger vehicles (sedans, SUVs, crossovers, minivans, cargo vans) and light trucks, as well as key automobile parts (engines, transmissions, powertrain parts, and electrical components), with processes to expand tariffs on additional parts if necessary.
"Importers of automobiles under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be given the opportunity to certify their U.S. content and systems will be implemented such that the 25 percent tariff will only apply to the value of their non-US content."
"But if you build your car in the US, there is no tariff," Trump added.
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Twitter user Sawyer Meritt shared a breakdown by Visual Cap of 'where cars sold in the US are made' seeing Tesla '100 percent' made in the US compared to '77 percent of Ford', with the other '21 percent' in Canada and Mexico and remaining two percent 'other'.
Earlier today (March 27), Musk responded to the post: "Important to note that Tesla is NOT unscathed here. The tariff impact on Tesla is still significant."
And his post follows a letter from Tesla to United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
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Submitted by Tesla’s associate general counsel Miriam Eqab on March 11, the letter states: "While Tesla recognizes and supports the importance of fair trade, the assessment undertaken by USTR of potential actions to rectify unfair trade should also take into account exports from the United States.
"US exporters are inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to US trade actions.
"Past U.S. special tariff actions have thus (1) increased costs to Tesla for vehicles manufactured in the United States, and (2) increased costs for those same vehicles when exported from the United States, resulting in less competitive international marketplace for US manufacturers.
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"USTR should investigate ways to avoid these pitfalls in future action."
The comments follow Trump stating he had not gone to Musk to advise him on the tariffs given 'he may have a conflict' in the matter.
The president added Musk has never 'asked [him] for a favor in business whatsoever'.