Perhaps Trump should take some diplomacy lessons from Elon Musk?

Tesla shares have spiked over 4% in the pre-market session on news that the company won an exemption from a 10% Chinese tax on automotive sales, according to Bloomberg. The exemption previously only applied to domestic EV makers and will affect all Tesla models sold in China, according to China's industry ministry. 

The news comes after Musk's visit to China, where he squared off with Alibaba founder Jack Ma in a debate about artificial intelligence. Musk appeared at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, where he also spoke to local authorities and toured Tesla's new Gigafactory being built about 70 kilometers away from the city's center. 

Tesla is currently importing all of the cars that it sells in China but plans to start manufacturing its Model 3 at its new Shanghai plant at some point in the future. Tesla's website still reflects price hikes that were put into place last Friday in order to account for tariffs. The price of a basic Model 3 rose more than 2% to about $50,900 USD and basic level Model S and Model X vehicles increased by a similar percentage.  

Tesla short-seller Mark Speigel of Stanphyl Capital summed it up the best:

Simplest $TSLA China tax explanation:

It's a 10% exemption which combined with today's 2% price increases = 8% lower prices until the tariff goes from 15% to 40% on December 1st.

— Mark B. Spiegel (@markbspiegel) August 30, 2019