The head of Tesla said US tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles are `unnecessary`.

Main content Hide / ShowElon Musk opposes the US raising tariffs on Chinese electric cars. Is the US move the right choice?

According to Reuters news agency, Tesla founder Elon Musk told technology investors in Paris on May 23 that he opposes US tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

This represents a change from his warning in January that trade barriers were necessary or China would `beat almost every other car company in the world.`

This month, US President Joe Biden implemented new tariffs on a series of imports from China, including electric vehicles, to support US manufacturing.

`Neither Tesla nor I asked for these tariffs, in fact I was surprised when they were announced. Anything that hinders free exchange or distorts markets is not good,` Musk said at the conference.

`Tesla competes quite well in the market in China without taxes and without any special support. Therefore, I support no taxes on Chinese electric vehicles.`

In January, Musk warned that Chinese automakers would `beat` global rivals without trade barriers.

`If there weren’t trade barriers set up, they would beat almost every other car company in the world,` Musk said during an earnings call earlier this year.

An article published by The Economist magazine on May 23 called the US move a `bad policy`.

The report says one of the major achievements of the past half century has been the significant reduction in global tariffs. The reduction in tariffs, from average import tariffs of more than 10% in the 1970s to 3% today

Reality has proven that the more countries open, the more they develop. Therefore, it is a pity that President Joe Biden has decided to impose a 100% tax on electric vehicles produced in China, the article said.

A Bloomberg article also said that China’s clean technology is not an enemy to the US. China has installed as many wind and solar power generation facilities by 2023 as the rest of the world.

“If Western countries were truly thinking about green industrial policies, instead of just a set of trade barriers to separate them from a world moving toward carbon neutrality with Chinese technology

Eric Zheng, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said imposing additional tariffs on Chinese imports could have unintended consequences such as increasing pressure on inflation, as well as pushing

`We appreciate the administration’s efforts in recent months to stabilize the US-China relationship. However, we are concerned that this new round of tariffs could lead to another trade war, which

Hu Jie, a professor at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Shanghai Jiaotong University, noted that new tariffs on Chinese products could affect China’s exports, but the policy

`The market share of Chinese new energy vehicles in the US is already very small, so the impact of tariffs on China is very limited. However, this policy limits the choices of US consumers and prevents them from enjoying

Bill Russo, founder and CEO of Automobility Limited, a strategy and investment consulting firm headquartered in Shanghai, said that tax barriers are ineffective in improving the competitiveness of companies.

According to Russo, American consumers will have to `pay the price` because they cannot access efficient and large-scale supply chains from China.