According to Reuters, Elon Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative on Tuesday, urging the U.S. government to resolve trade barriers affecting the operation of its Starlink services in foreign countries, saying that foreign competitors do not need to bear any import costs when operating in the United States, while Starlink needs to bear these costs in other countries.
SpaceX said it must pay spectrum usage fees to foreign governments, import duties on Starlink equipment and other regulatory fees, which "artificially" raises its operating costs overseas.
Currently, Starlink operates in more than 120 markets around the world, but in some countries, SpaceX must coordinate spectrum sharing with local satellite operators before launching services.
In a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative's Office on Tuesday, SpaceX described the demands as "protectionist non-tariff trade barriers." "Foreign operators use these anti-competitive policies to prevent or delay SpaceX from providing higher quality, lower price services to customers in these countries." Matt Dunn, SpaceX's senior director of global government affairs, said in the letter.
Musk is now a close ally of US President Donald Trump. Tesla, another Musk company, warned on Friday that it and other U.S. exporters could face retaliatory tariffs from countries including Canada.