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Elon Musk asks White House to let him buy Chinese parts without paying tariffs in ongoing trade war

Musk’s Boring Co. says the parts will ‘restore the now-dormant American tunnel boring industry’ and won’t impact the US push against Beijing’s Made in China 2025 programme

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Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, speaks during the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in July. Photo: AFP

Elon Musk’s Boring Co., which is trying to lower the cost of building high-speed transit tunnels, has asked the Trump administration to exempt it from tariffs for some Chinese-made tunnel boring machine components, warning the tariffs could significantly delay a planned tunnel between New York and Washington.

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In a July 31 letter posted last week on a government website, the Boring Co asked the US Trade Representative to exempt parts such as cutterheads, screw conveyors and related machinery. Boring seeks “limited parts from China in the near-term for use in a small number of tunnel boring machines”. The letter added those parts are “readily available only from China”.

Privately held Boring added that it is “working to develop and manufacture our own tunnel boring machines” and wants to “restore the now-dormant American tunnel boring machine industry”.

The company said for planned tunnels, including a project between Washington and Baltimore, it will “use machines that are majority-composed of US content”.

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The tariffs could cause “severe economic harm” to the company and US interests and could result in a delay of one to two years in the construction of a proposed Washington-to-Baltimore tunnel that it plans to eventually extend to New York.

A miniature mock-up of the electric public transport vehicles that Elon Musk plans to use to populate high-speed underground transport systems. Photo: Boring Co.
A miniature mock-up of the electric public transport vehicles that Elon Musk plans to use to populate high-speed underground transport systems. Photo: Boring Co.
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