Elon Musk's Tesla Inc. is fighting new tariffs on graphite imports from China, clashing with President Trump's favored economic tool. US graphite producers seek higher tariffs, arguing Chinese competition keeps prices artificially low. Tesla and other EV companies oppose these tariffs, which they say will increase production costs and consumer prices.
Elon Musk ’s Tesla Inc. is spearheading an effort to block new tariffs on graphite imports from China, pitting Donald Trump’s richest backer against the president’s favorite economic tool.
US graphite producers have benefited from grants doled out by the Biden administration, which was eager to foster domestic supply chains for critical minerals to lessen the country’s dependence on China and revive its manufacturing sector. “It’s an obvious conflict,” said Richard Painter, a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota who was the top ethics lawyer in President George W. Bush’s White House. “This is the problem – we don’t know whether he’s in the government or out of it.”If confirmed as Trump’s Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick could be forced to decide between the president’s goals and Musk’s commercial interests.
Lutnick also vowed to work to bring mining and production of critical minerals like graphite back to the US, and embraced using tariffs as a means to do so. “It is important for American national security that the key rare earths and minerals we create ourselves,” he said. Tesla said in federal filings this month that it relies on Chinese graphite imports because the domestic industry hasn’t developed enough to meet the quality standards and volume that the carmaker requires.
The executives said it could still take years to develop a domestic graphite industry that can produce material with the purity required for EV cells.
ELON MUSK TESLA GRAPHITE TARIFFS CHINA TRADE WAR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
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