“Tesla’s Elon Musk is complaining to President Donald Trump about China’s car tariffs,” Tae Kim reports for CNBC. “‘Do you think the US & China should have equal & fair rules for cars? Meaning, same import duties, ownership constraints & other factors,’ Musk said on Twitter in response to a Trump tweet about trade with China. ‘I am against import duties in general, but the current rules make things very difficult. It’s like competing in an Olympic race wearing lead shoes.'”
“Trump responded to Musk’s tweets later at his steel and aluminum tariff press conference Thursday,” Kim reports. “‘We are going to be doing a reciprocal tax program at some point, so that if China is going to charge us 25% or if India is going to charge us 75% and we charge them nothing… We’re going to be at those same numbers. It’s called reciprocal, a mirror tax,’ Trump said after reading Musk’s earlier tweets out loud.”
China has been asked to develop a plan for the year of a One Billion Dollar reduction in their massive Trade Deficit with the United States. Our relationship with China has been a very good one, and we look forward to seeing what ideas they come back with. We must act soon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2018
For example, an American car going to China pays 25% import duty, but a Chinese car coming to the US only pays 2.5%, a tenfold difference
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 8, 2018
Read more in the full article here.
“According to people familiar with the matter, Trump administration officials requested a $100 billion reduction in the U.S.-China trade deficit when meeting with President Xi Jinping’s top economic deputy last week,” Lingling Wei reports for The Wall Street Journal. “According to the people, Liu He, the main architect of China’s economic policy, said in his Washington meetings that narrowing the vast bilateral trade deficit was in China’s interest as China seeks to shift away from an export-led growth model.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Perhaps Musk should have stayed on the presidential committees of which he was at one time a member. Seems like that would have been a better avenue for discussing and achieving shared policy goals than Twitter.
SEE ALSO:
Analyst: President Trump’s tariff impact on Apple would be just a ’rounding error’ – March 7, 2018
Apple and other tech firms caught in crossfire as U.S.-China trade war looms – March 7, 2018
Apple Macs caught up in President Trump’s aluminum tariff plan – March 2, 2018
Apple CEO Tim Cook pressured to follow Elon Musk and leave President’s Council over Paris Agreement kerfuffle – June 2, 2017
Apple CEO Cook calls President Trump as Elon Musk threatens to quit White House advisory councils over Paris decision – May 31, 2017