Bring manufacturing back to US, Trump tells Apple again

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a 25 per cent tariff on iPhones imported to the US, including from India, ratcheting up pressure on Apple to bring manufacturing back to the US from its international operations.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their Phones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25 per cent must be paid by Apple to the US. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The US President has targetted Apple’s Indian operations in recent weeks, opening a new front even as the US and India are negotiating a mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement under Trump’s reciprocal tariffs announced in April, but put on pause for 90 days.

Apple has been expanding its India operations to diversify its China-based supply chains. And it had plans of shipping most of the iPhones produced in India to the US to circumvent Trump’s astronomically high tariffs on China, which has been rolled back since.

The threat of a 25 per cent tariff on imported iPhones is a new escalation in Trump pressure on Apple. He had earlier said that he would like Tim Cook, the CEO, to bring back operations to the US from India saying earlier this month, “You are building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India if you want to take care of India”.

He added that he said to Cook “We’ve treated you really well. We put up with all the plants that you built in China for years … We’re not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves. They’re doing very well.”

IANS