In a jab at Apple's efforts to diversify production away from China, US President Donald Trump said that he informed Tim Cook that he did not want the tech giant to make its products in India and urged him to change course domestically.
Trump was alluding to Apple's February announcement of a $500 billion investment in the United States.
In an effort to lessen its dependency on China, where around 90 percent of its flagship smartphones are now produced, Apple has been increasing production in India with the goal of producing about 25 percent of all iPhones worldwide in the coming years.
“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.
Without providing any other information, the US president went on to say that Apple will be "upping" its production in the US.
Trump placed a 26 percent so-called "reciprocal tariff" on Indian imports, which has been temporarily cut till July, as part of the White House's trade protectionist measures that were made public in April.
The Indian government approved Foxconn, Apple's primary assembly partner in India, on Monday to establish a semiconductor plant in the nation through a joint venture with HCL Group.
In order to increase its production capacity, Apple has resorted to nations like Vietnam and India after spending decades developing its supply network in China.
However, analysts largely concur that given the final product's pricing, it would be extremely unlikely to move iPhone production to the United States. According to varying estimates, an iPhone built in the United States would cost between $1,500 and $3,500.
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At the moment, Apple produces very few goods in the United States. The Mac Pro is currently made in the United States by the Cupertino behemoth. It declared in February that it would open a manufacturing plant in Texas to create servers for its artificial intelligence system, Apple Intelligence.