I don't think it is that simple.
It isn't simple, but it is straightforward. Import duties on the sales side are an importer/exporter relationship.
Apple isn't
importing to the US; it's selling in its domestic market. On the other hand, Apple
is exporting to China, even to a buyer who lives just outside the factory doors.
Take components (which might take up 50% of the retail cost, though generally less for Apple).
Duties on components are uniform, production-side costs. It's not relevant to sales-side duties.
In most places, there are waivers for NFR purchases (if you're not importing for retail sale, you pay a lower duty or no duty). The example is not a good one.
If Apple bought a harddrive from Korea, it would pay import duties when it arrives in the U.S.
Not in your example, no, they wouldn't.
You have to separate the movement of goods (a paperwork issue) from the taxation issue. They're not really related.
if 'Apple China' buys it, puts it into a computer, Apple does not pay any duties on it anymore when it arrives in the U.S.?
Correct, except it's not Apple China, it's just Apple.
If a UK company builds something in the
same factory in China as a US company, it's still just the US company that has to pay duties and tariffs in order to sell its products in the UK.
But does Apple actually builds their devices? Or are subcontractors building it and Apple is buying it from them?
Doesn't matter. All of that is production-side and has no bearing on the final, sales-side import duty on the product.
Ok, I am not sure what your are trying to say here, except that things are not as clear cut as your first sentence would suggest.
But they are. Production-side costs are uniform. Apple may pay various duties, taxes, and tariffs in the process of buying components and assembling computers, but those costs are identical regardless of where the computer is ultimately sold.
The final import duty that affects international pricing is for
sales, not production. There are no added costs on top of production for American companies doing business in America. There
are additional costs for American companies doing business in other countries.
Say the widget costs Company A $100 to make in China, which includes all component costs, taxes, royalties, packaging, etc. They have $10 in business overhead (R&D, support, marketing, etc.), it costs $5 in distribution, and they sell it for $125 in the US. Profit: $10.
Now they want to sell it in Foreign Country X. It still costs them the same $100 to make in China, they still have the same $10 overhead, but now distribution is $6, and they have an import duty on the finished product to pay of $10, and they have overseas business operation expenses of $4 per unit. They have to sell it at the equivalent of $140 to make the same profit.
If country X uses a VAT system, that's an added expense to build into the price. Company A does have the option of pooling all expenses worldwide and selling everywhere at the same price, but that means that countries with below-average sales costs are overpaying to subsidize countries with above-average sales costs, so a lot of companies choose not to and place local sales burdens on customers in those markets.
