Trump blasts Apple for shifting iPhone production to India
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The news: US President Donald Trump said he has told Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop building factories in India to build devices for the US, in efforts to skirt US tariffs on Chinese-made goods.
The context: Speaking in Qatar as part of his Middle East tour, Trump said: “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday … He is building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.” Trump said that Apple will be “upping their production in the United States,” as a result of the conversation.
Last week media reports emerged that Apple had chartered cargo flights to ship 600 tonnes of iPhones to the US from India in efforts to beat President Trump’s import tariffs. The tech giant loaded as many as 1.5 million phones onto planes since March, having established a ‘green corridor’ at Chennai Airport to streamline customs from 30 hours to six.
Beyond ‘beating the tariff,’ the FT reported that Apple plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India as soon as next year. Its strategy to diversify its supply chain away from China would see the over 60 million iPhones sold the US sourced from India by the end of 2026.
Trump said that he told Cook: “We are treating you really good, we put up with all the plants you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India.”
The WSJ reported last week that Apple is considering upping the price of iPhones, but wants to avoid attributing any price increase to the US tariffs on goods from China.
In February Apple pledged to spend USD500 billion ($785.4 billion) in the US in the coming four years which will include spending on data centres, chips and servers for AI.
