Trump says he urged Apple to manufacture in US not India

DOHA: US President Donald Trump said Thursday (May 15) he urged Apple to manufacture its products in the United States instead of India, where the US tech giant has said it would be shifting production after US tariffs on China.

"I had a little problem with Tim Cook," Trump said, referring to Apple's CEO, during a multi-day tour of the Gulf. "I said, Tim, we treated you really good. We put up with all the plants that you built in China for years now."

The president said he told Cook: "We're not interested in you building in India ... we want you to build here and they're going to be upping their production in the United States." 

On Monday, the US and China announced an agreement to suspend tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days, de-escalating a trade war that has spooked financial markets and raised fears of a global economic downturn.

Prior to the agreement between Beijing and Washington, Cook said Apple was "not able to precisely estimate the impact of tariffs". 

When presenting the tech company's first-quarter profits in early May, Cook said he expected "a majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin".

He warned of the uncertain impact of the 145 per cent US tariffs on products from China, the company's long-time manufacturing hub, despite a temporary reprieve for high-end tech goods such as smartphones and computers.

Although completed smartphones are exempted from Trump's tariffs for now, not all components that go into Apple devices are spared.

Apple expects US tariffs to cost US$900 million in the current quarter, even though their impact was "limited" at the start of this year, according to Cook.

India, also hit by US tariffs, threatened on Tuesday to take retaliatory measures in response to the increased duties on steel and aluminium.

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Thursday trade negotiations between India and the United States are ongoing, and any agreement should be mutually beneficial.

Apple announced in February it would invest more than US$500 billion in the United States over the next four years and promised to hire 20,000 people in the country.

"Apple's already in for 500 billion but they're going to be upping their production, so it'll be great," Trump said in Qatar.