Donald Trump speaks alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook (L) during the first meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 6, 2019.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he doesn’t want the tech giant to build its products in India, taking shots at the company’s moves to diversify production away from China and urging him to pivot stateside.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “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 was referencing Apple’s commitment of a $500 billion investment in the U.S. which was announced in February.
Apple has been ramping up production in India with the aim of making around 25% of global iPhones in the country in the next few years, as it looks to reduce reliance on China, where around 90% of its flagship smartphone is currently assembled.
“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,'” Trump said.
The U.S. president added that Apple is going to be “upping” its production in the United States, without disclosing further details.
CNBC has reached out to Apple.
Trump made the comments about the U.S. tech giant while discussing Washington’s broader trade relations with India.
Trump said India is “one of the highest tariff nations in the world,” adding the country has offered a deal to the U.S. where “they are willing to literally charge us no tariff.”
Under the White House’s trade protectionist policies revealed in April, Trump has imposed a so-called reciprocal tariff of 26% on Indian goods, which has been temporarily lowered until July.
Apple’s main assembly partner in India, Foxconn, received approval from the Indian government on Monday to build a semiconductor plant in the country in a joint venture with HCL Group.
Apple has spent decades building up its supply chain in China, but has looked to other countries like Vietnam and India to expand its production capacity.
But experts generally agree that moving production of the iPhone to the U.S. would be highly unlikely because of the final price of the end product. Varying estimates put the cost of an iPhone between $1,500 to $3,500, if it were made in the U.S.
Apple currently makes very few products in the U.S. Currently, the Cupertino, California, giant produces the Mac Pro in the U.S. In February, it announced it would launch a manufacturing facility in Texas to produce servers for Apple Intelligence, its artificial intelligence system.