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Trump wants Apple to stop India iPhone production, boost US manufacturing amid tariff war
The comments throw a wrench into Apple’s plan to import most of the iPhones it sells in the US from India rather than China
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US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had asked Apple’s Tim Cook to stop building plants in India, taking aim at the iPhone maker’s plans to diversify its manufacturing beyond China.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said of his conversation with the Apple chief executive officer in Qatar, where he is on a state visit. “He is building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.”
As a result of their discussion, Trump said Apple would be “upping their production in the United States”.
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India had one of the highest tariff barriers in the world and it was very hard to sell American products in the planet’s most populous country, Trump said. He said, though, that India had made an offer to drop tariffs on US goods, as the Asian nation seeks an agreement on import taxes.
The US president’s comments throw a wrench into Apple’s plan to import most of the iPhones it sells in the US from India by the end of next year, accelerating a shift beyond China to mitigate risks related to tariffs and geopolitical tensions.
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