By Owen Evans
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Apple if the tech giant does not manufacture iPhones in the United States.
In a Friday statement posted on social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote: “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”
Shares of Apple fell by 3.5% in premarket trading. Apple makes more than 90% of its products in China.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said on May 1 that most iPhones and other Apple products bound for the U.S. market will no longer be made in China.
The majority of the iPhones heading for the United States in the coming months will instead be made in India, while Vietnam will be the main production point for products such as iPads and Apple Watches.
During a call with investors discussing Apple’s second-quarter results, Cook was asked how the company planned to adapt to the new U.S. tariff regimen, which significantly targets Chinese-manufactured goods.
“For the June quarter, we do expect the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. will have India as their country of origin and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods products also sold in the U.S,” Cook said.
Later in the month, speaking in Qatar, Trump admonished Apple and Cook over the tech company’s plans.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” said Trump. “I said to him: ‘Tim, you’re my friend. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.”
In March, major U.S. manufacturing lobby group the Alliance for American Manufacturing wrote in a blog that Apple has “leveraged cheap foreign labor and loose environmental regulations” by offshoring production of its “moneymaker,” the iPhone.
It said that the news from the same month, that Apple will invest $500 billion over the next four years to expand its U.S. facilities and create up to 20,000 U.S. jobs, sounded “great,” but for a company of Apple’s size, it’s “a drop in the bucket.”
It added that if Apple really wanted “to get serious about U.S. manufacturing, it would bring its hallmark product, the iPhone, onto assembly lines right here.”
“This is unsurprising,” Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul said at the time on social media platform X, in reference to Apple’s U.S. expansion announcement.
“I’ll start paying attention when Apple shifts mass-market iPhone and/or laptop production to the United States. Apple’s $500 billion U.S. spending plan for the next four years is in line [with] what one might expect it to spend, given its financials.”
Trump also said on Friday that he is recommending a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union starting on June 1.
“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere! … There is no tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States.”
Guy Birchall contributed to this report.
