Tesla CEO Elon Musk watches as President Donald Trump talks to the media, exterior the White Home in Washington, D.C., March 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Two corporations 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.
However the two corporations had completely different messages for U.S. Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer.
The electrical car maker Tesla warned of the damaging impact on its backside line from tariffs and from duties imposed by different international locations on U.S.-made merchandise in retaliation for these tariffs.
SpaceX complained that working prices for its Starlink web satellite tv for pc service are elevated by commerce limitations overseas, whereas international opponents face no such prices in the US.
The letters come as Musk oversees the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, an effort to slash federal authorities spending and worker head rely 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.
The letters are two of greater than 700 acquired to this point by the commerce consultant’s workplace in response to an invite for public touch upon “unfair commerce practices by different international locations.” The responses are posted on a public docket.
Jamieson Greer, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. commerce consultant, testifies throughout his Senate Finance Committee affirmation listening to, within the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing, Feb. 6, 2025.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Name, Inc. | Getty Photographs
Tesla, in its unsigned letter to Greer, inspired him “to think about the downstream impacts of sure proposed actions taken to handle unfair commerce practices.”
“Whereas Tesla acknowledges and helps the significance of truthful commerce, the evaluation undertaken by USTR of potential actions to rectify unfair commerce also needs to take into consideration exports from the US,” mentioned the letter, which was submitted by Tesla’s affiliate basic counsel Miriam Eqab.
“U.S. exporters are inherently uncovered to disproportionate impacts when different international locations reply to U.S. commerce actions.”
Tesla famous that, “Previous U.S. particular tariff actions have thus (1) elevated prices to Tesla for automobiles manufactured in the US, and (2) elevated prices for those self same automobiles when exported from the US, leading to much less aggressive worldwide market for U.S. producers.”
“USTR ought to examine methods to keep away from these pitfalls in future motion,” the letter mentioned.
SpaceX, in its letter to Greer, mentioned that it “faces a variety of regulatory complexities and commerce limitations in each nation that the U.S. Authorities ought to search to handle with the intention to help continued U.S. management within the area area.”
The letter famous that the corporate should pay international governments for entry to spectrum and import duties for its Starlink satellite tv for pc web tools, and different charges that “considerably improve the price of working in these international locations — artificially.”
“The import duties paid in a handful of nations symbolize a major price improve for Starlink merchandise in these international locations, regardless of the US having basically no duties on related international merchandise which can be imported into the US to serve prospects right here,” wrote Mat Dunn, SpaceX’s senior director of worldwide enterprise and authorities affairs, within the letter.
“As President Trump has famous with different sectors, it is a vital drawback to U.S. corporations,” Dunn wrote.
Tesla and SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from CNBC about their letters.
