Elon Musk hopes US, Europe will create 'zero-tariff' zone in future

Billionaire Elon Musk told Italy League leader Matteo Salvini on Saturday that he hoped in the future the US and Europe could create "a very close, stronger partnership" and reach a "zero-tariff zone".

Musk spoke to Salvini in a video conference during the League's congress in Florence. Salvini is the leader of the far-right, anti-migrant League party and vice premier of the Italian conservative government led by Premier Giorgia Meloni. 

He said that, ideally, there will be a "zero-tariff zone in the future with a free trade zone between Europe and North America".

 

Musk, an adviser to President Donald Trump who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in government downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.  US President Donald Trump's big raise in tariffs has triggered an escalating trade war and sent global markets plummeting.

The S&P 500 fell 6 per cent Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 5.5 per cent and the Nasdaq composite dropped 5.8 per cent.

China announced Friday that it will impose a 34 per cent tax on all US imports next week, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures to Trump's new tariffs.  Trump has doubled down on his commitment to tariffs, maintaining that his new levies will bring trillions of dollars of investment to the US while also criticising other countries' retaliatory measures.  The baseline 10 per cent levy announced by Trump this week kicked in at 12:01 am Saturday ET (0401 GMT), triggering customs agents' collections at ports of entry across the US.

Countries targeted by Trump for higher tariffs are due to go in effect on Wednesday. Those include assessments as high as 50 per cent for Lesotho, 49 per cent for Cambodia and 47 per cent for Madagascar.

In an all-caps social media post Saturday, Trump insisted: THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN.

Public reaction hasn't been so confident, with stock markets slumping since the tariff announcement