Trump demands Apple to stop making iPhones in India: the end of the anti-China plan?

Another week, another bold economic claim from President Donald Trump.

This time it’s iPhone, the ubiquitous cell phone produced by US technology giant Apple. But the phones themselves are manufactured overseas, something that Trump is eager to curb.

Speaking on the matter during a state visit to Qatar this week, Trump revealed that he had confronted Apple CEO Tim Cook about the company’s shift in production to India.

Trump told reporters on Thursday: “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday.”

“I said to him, ‘My friend, I treated you very good. 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.”

Trump’s $500 billion figure was a reference to the announcement, made by Apple in February, that they were making a $500 billion investment in the US. However it’s also increasing production in India, which will soon be making around 25% of all iPhones. That move has not impressed Trump.

The President continued: “I said to Tim, I said, ‘Tim look, we treated you really good, we put up with all the plants that you build in China for years, now you got build us. We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves ... we want you to build here.‘”

Apple is in the process of cutting its reliance on China due to fears about a simmering trade war between the two super powers. Currently, around 90% of iPhones are manufactured in China but the US and other Western nations are trying to divest.

Apple is playing ball by shifting away from China, but the move to Indian production doesn’t seem to have gone down well with the White House either. Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, has ran the figures on a US-made iPhone and it makes eye-watering viewing for consumers with the price potentially soaring to around $3,500.

“If U.S. tech companies are faced with this reality, it will negatively change the tech landscape for decades to come,” Ives said last month.

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