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Trump says U.S. to be very flexible on tariffs he'll sign today

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk, battling Chinese government officials over the terms of getting a plant built in the country, may be trying to tempt Donald Trump into calling out the nation’s automotive trade protections.

“Do you think the US & China should have equal & fair rules for cars?” Musk wrote Thursday in response to a post by the president a day earlier. He noted China charges 25 percent import duties on cars, ten times the U.S.’s levy of 2.5 percent. “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.”

Tesla has been trying for months to get a deal done with Shanghai’s government since disclosing in June that it was in negotiations to assemble cars there. An agreement hasn’t been finalized because the two sides disagree on the ownership structure for a proposed factory, people with direct knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg News in February.

China’s central government is pushing for the plant to be a joint venture with local partners, while Tesla wants to own the factory completely, the people said. 

“We raised this with the prior administration and nothing happened,” Musk wrote after tweeting about the import duties and joint-venture ownership rules. “Just want a fair outcome, ideally where tariffs/rules are equally moderate. Nothing more. Hope this does not seem unreasonable.”