WASHINGTON—A company owned by Elon Musk that 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.
In a July 31 letter posted last week on a government website, the Boring Co asked the U.S. Trade Representative to exempt parts like 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.”
