At a gathering with corporate executives in Qatar, Trump declares, “I told Tim Cook we’re not interested in you building in India; they can take care of themselves.”
In Doha, Qatar, on May 15, US President Donald Trump stated that he had spoken with Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc., and informed him that there was no need to establish facilities in India unless it was especially to service that market.
“Told Apple CEO Tim Cook we’re not interested in you building in India; they can take care of themselves,” Trump said in Doha regarding his discussion with Cook, according to Bloomberg.
Following their conversation, Trump declared that Apple would be “increasing their production in the United States.”
India has offered to remove all tariffs on the US, he added.
Trump stated, “India has offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff,” during a gathering with Qatari business executives.
According to a source who spoke to Reuters last month, Apple is accelerating its plans to manufacture the majority of its iPhones sold in the US at plants in India by the end of 2026 in order to avoid possibly higher tariffs in China, its primary manufacturing base.
Currently, China produces around 80% of the more than 60 million iPhones that Apple sells in the US each year.
According to the Reuters study, manufacturing prices for iPhones are 5-8% higher in India than in China, and in certain situations, the gap might reach 10%.
In order to avoid Trump’s tariffs, Apple has already increased production in India; in March, it sent almost 600 tons of iPhones valued at $2 billion to the US. Both its contractors, Foxconn and Tata, set records with the shipments from India; according to a Reuters story last month, Foxconn alone was responsible for $1.3 billion worth of smartphones.
The U.S. government levied 26% taxes on Indian imports in April, which was significantly less than the almost 100% duty China was then subject to. Since then, Washington has suspended most duties, with the exception of China, for three months.
In 2024, Apple produced about 40–45 million iPhones in India, which accounted for 18–20% of its total production worldwide. About 12 million of these were sold in India, 13 million to various foreign markets, and 14–15 million to the United States.
According to Cook, the company anticipates that India will supply the majority of iPhones sold in the United States during the June quarter. Nearly every iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, and AirPod that is sold in the United States will be manufactured in Vietnam.
“We do anticipate that the majority of iPhones sold in the United States will have their country of origin in India and that nearly all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods products sold in the United States will have their country of origin in Vietnam. The current tariffs that apply to Apple today are based on the country of origin of the product. During the company’s earnings call earlier this month, Cook stated that the great majority of all product sales outside of the United States will still originate in China.
