Trump to Cook: ‘We Are Not Interested in You Building in India’
Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press
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The US President is not amused with Apple’s plans. President Donald Trump recently told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he wants the Cupertino company to halt its ongoing manufacturing expansion in India and instead move production of the devices to the United States. Apple has been shifting iPhone production out of China due to the ongoing trade battle between that country and the US.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said during his state visit to Qatar, reports Bloomberg. “He is building all over India.”
“They [India] have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs. I said ‘Tim, 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. India can take care of themselves.'”
Trump claimed that as a result of their discussion, Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.”
Apple’s Indian iPhone production reached $22 billion in the fiscal year ending in March, representing a nearly 60% increase over the previous year. Trump’s comments could throw a wrench into Apple’s production expansion plans in India. The company plans to import most of the iPhones destined for the US from India by the end of the year.
Apple and its assembly and component partners have been accelerating their plans to move production out of China over the last few years. Initially, the ramp up came from COVID restrictions that disrupted operations during the global pandemic. The process has accelerated even more in recent months, thanks to ongoing trade-related tensions, with both the US and China threatening heavy tariffs on each other’s imported goods. Currently, the tariffs are on pause, as the US and China negotiate a resolution for the tariff situation.
Most of the iPhones assembled in India are made at Foxconn’s factory located in the southern part of the South Asian country. Another major supplier in the country is the electronics manufacturing arm of the Tata Group. The group acquired Wistron’s business operations in the country, while also managing Pegatron’s Indian operations.
Cook discussed the future of his company’s supply chain during Apple’s recent earnings call, where he said, “What we learned some time ago, having everything in one location had too much risk with it. We have, over time, with certain parts of the supply chain, opened up new sources of supply. You could see that kind of thing continuing in the future.”
On the same call, Cook also discussed Apple’s plans to invest $500 billion in the United States over the next four years, as the company will be expanding its facilities in several US states. Apple is building a new advanced server manufacturing facility in Texas, which is scheduled to begin production later this year.
Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to see the iPhone built in the United States. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently claimed that Cook told him Apple is merely waiting for robots before relocating iPhone production to the United States. However, some observers doubt such a conversation ever took place.
Lutnick also did not clarify how using robots would enable Apple to bring jobs back to the US. Some analysts believe that the US does not have either the skilled labor or the raw materials required to manufacture iPhones or other Apple devices domestically.
