President Donald Trump has expressed his disagreement with Apple’s decision to move the production of most iPhones intended for the U.S. market to India, thus avoiding the high tariffs imposed on products of Chinese origin.
In statements to the press, Trump emphasized that he prefers the manufacturing company to produce its devices in the United States. “I don’t want you building in India,” he said, addressing Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.
Despite the investment intentions of 500 billion dollars that Apple has promised to make in the United States, this amount will be allocated to infrastructure projects, research and development, and productions for Apple TV+, but does not include device manufacturing.
La inversión de $500 mil millones de Apple en EE. UU. excluye la fabricación de dispositivos
Meanwhile, Apple plans to source most of the iPhones sold in the country from India, as well as products like Mac, iPad, and AirPods from Vietnam.
Apple has argued that local manufacturing of devices in the United States is unfeasible due to the lack of adequate facilities and specialized talent. During a recent earnings call, it was reported that, in the upcoming quarter, most of the iPhones sold in the United States will have India as their country of origin, in an attempt to diversify its production chain.
The Trump administration has viewed tariff policy as an incentive for companies to increase their local production, something that Apple has not shown willingness to do so far.
Previously, the company warned that such policies could cost it nearly one billion dollars in its operations during the April to June quarter; however, there is uncertainty about how future trade measures will be affected by the recent agreements between the United States and China, which have a validity period of 90 days.