June 25, 2019—The U.S. Commerce Department has agreed to Tesla Inc’s request to waive 10 percent tariffs on imported aluminum from Japan used in the manufacture of battery cells at Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory, reported Reuters.
The waiver is good for one year. The Commerce Department said in a document dated June 5 and posted on a government website in recent days that the aluminum “is not produced in the United States in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality.”
The battery cells are assembled into packs which are the energy source for the Tesla Model 3 vehicle as well as energy storage products.