President Donald Trump isn’t pleased with Apple CEO Tim Cook’s plan to manufacture iPhones bound for the United States at newly built plants in India.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said Thursday in Qatar. “I said to him, ‘Tim, you’re my friend. I treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion.’ But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.’”
Trump has levied historic tariffs on practically all goods coming into the United States to boost domestic manufacturing, improve the balance of trade and bring in revenue to pay for his planned tax cut, among other aims.
Although some companies, including Apple, have announced plans to increase production in the United States to avoid high tariffs, factories take years to build and American labor remains expensive. Corporate America can’t just flip a switch and start making everything in the United States.
Trump said Apple can build in India “to take care of India” and claimed that Apple is “upping their production in the United States.” (Apple didn’t immediately respond for comment.)
His comments follow Apple’s decision to shift production of iPhones sold in the United States from China to India so Apple can avoid paying higher tariffs. The company said that tariffs could add $900 million to its costs this quarter.
Cook said on a call with analysts earlier this month that he expected “the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin.”
Apple had working to shift some iPhone production to India for years, building new factories in the country and hiring staff. The company has no ability to produce iPhones in the United States, and, given the complexity of its supply chain, probably won’t build its most popular product in America anytime soon.
Although the Trump administration is eager to get Apple to bring iPhone production here, it’s an ambition that analysts have said is nearly impossible to achieve because of high costs.
The price of an iPhone could triple to $3,500 if they were made here, according to Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities,
Apple previously announced in February a $500 billion plan on expanding US facilities over the next four years that would create 20,000 jobs.
The investment builds on Apple’s previous efforts to expand its supply chain outside of China in recent years, partly in response to production issues in the country during the pandemic. Those investments include growing production for Mac Pro computers in Texas.
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