Apple Won't Be Impacted by India Tariff Increase

[MacRumors]

U.S. President Donald Trump is increasing the tariff on goods from India to 50 percent starting on August 27, but Apple's manufacturing in the country won't be affected.

Semiconductors and derivative products like iPhones are already exempt from the existing 25 percent reciprocal tariffs that are in place. According to CNBC, the executive order increasing the tariff rate doubles the 25 percent reciprocal tariff rate to 50 percent, and semiconductors will continue to be exempt.

Apple is already unaffected by the 25 percent reciprocal tariffs in India that were put in place on August 1, and it looks like that's not going to change if and when tariffs increase to the 50 percent mark later in August.

Apple has been shifting a significant portion of its manufacturing from China to India for supply chain diversification and because of U.S.-China trade tensions. Apple partners like Foxconn and Pegatron have established factories in India for assembling the iPhone, and all five iPhone 16 models are assembled in the country for Indian customers and for export to countries like the U.S.

The order that exempts Apple from paying reciprocal tariffs is temporary, and exemptions could change at Trump's whim. Trump has said that no one is "getting off the hook," and that his administration is working on specific semiconductor levies that could impact Apple devices.

Apple is working hard to convince Trump not to subject it to additional tariffs. The company promised to invest $500 billion in U.S. manufacturing earlier this year, and today, Trump is announcing another $100 billion Apple investment in the form of a new U.S.-based Apple manufacturing program. Apple CEO Tim Cook will be present for the announcement.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Won't Be Impacted by India Tariff Increase

 

[MacUserFella]

Good, tariffs are the last thing we need after a(n alleged) $50 price hike on the iPhone 17 series

 

[EugW]

Here’s hoping they’ll keep the 17 Pro at $999 but increase its storage to 256 GB, and will reduce the 17 Pro Max which is already at 256 GB to $1099. Call me an optimist…

 

[Blackstick]

This freaking guy could negotiate a $25,000 car up to $33,000 and claim he got a great deal for our country 🙄

 

[HouseLannister]

I had no idea the electronic exemption from April was still a thing after all the flip-flopping.

 

[racer1441]

This is a good compromise. It's the best way to help push manufacturing out of China but also put pressure on India to stop dealing with Russia. If we're going to be involved in the Russia/Ukraine fiasco, we need to be in it. I'd rather we are not involved at all, but eh.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Trump playing with tariffs is all bad. Uncertainty around tariffs means manufacturers will wisely hoard components and materials, which is very inefficient; the opposite of just-in-time manufacturing. So manufacturers worldwide will be less efficient and everything will cost more than it otherwise would. Being in some different geographic location does not magically avoid the supply inefficiencies created by tariff blatherings.

Games and headlines like "Apple won't be impacted by..." are just verbiage. Reality is that we all pay more when tariffs are even discussed. Trump playing with tariffs is all bad.

 

[cardfan]

As long as Apple keeps pumping money in to Trump and cronies , it’s all good. Cook knows how to play the game.

 

[senttoschool]

How is anyone suppose to feel confident doing business when one company gets exemptions and yours don't?

Ok, I understand Apple is an important company. But companies who have a connection to Trump get exemptions but those who don't won't? That's how you destroy your business environment and lead to crony capitalism that is so often prevalent in 2nd/3rd world countries.

 

[ForkHandles]

Good luck America. Having an highly deceitful, autocratic government and a media that supports it must be really hard.

Best wishes from the uk

 

[Allen_Wentz]

How is anyone suppose to feel confident doing business when one company gets exemptions and yours don't?

Ok, I understand Apple is an important company. But companies who have a connection to Trump get exemptions but those who don't won't? That's how you destroy your business environment and lead to crony capitalism that is so often prevalent in 2nd/3rd world countries.

Yup. Just go buy a few million in zero-intrinsic-value Trump meme coins, the Trump administration is going to great effort to make sure the bitcoin world is unregulated.

 

[Harthag]

The U.S. will never anytime soon have the manpower, infrastructure, employee willingness, or resources to domestically produce everything that this delusional clown hopes to achieve. It'll take several decades and by that time we'll have flip flopped through several political s**t-show regimes that ultimately will accomplish nothing.

 

[Plutonius]

As long as Apple keeps pumping money in to Trump and cronies , it’s all good. Cook knows how to play the game.

It's anyone in power.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Orange nosing works.

 

[jakey rolling]

I'm too busy laughing at the repeated use of the word "reciprocal" while describing American tariffs. I'm not sure how gullible Americans actually are, but there seem to be a lot of people writing articles here who have very low opinions of the average American reader.

 

[k1121j]

Trump playing with tariffs is all bad. Uncertainty around tariffs means manufacturers will wisely hoard components and materials, which is very inefficient; the opposite of just-in-time manufacturing. So manufacturers worldwide will be less efficient and everything will cost more than it otherwise would. Being in some different geographic location does not magically avoid the supply inefficiencies created by tariff blatherings.

Games and headlines like "Apple won't be impacted by..." are just verbiage. Reality is that we all pay more when tariffs are even discussed. Trump playing with tariffs is all bad.

Yes you right in the short term. long term tariffs will push things back to the US just like Free trade pushed jobs out of the USA in the long term. In the short term with Free Trade it was high life for the USA with cheap products, then long term it was cheap products no one could afford because all the jobs left for other countries.

 

[racer1441]

How is anyone suppose to feel confident doing business when one company gets exemptions and yours don't?

Never have run a business have you? Government, at all levels, gives certain deals to some businesses over others. Bids written to make sure their friends or contacts are the best one to bid on project. Requirements that narrow technology to one company. All sorts of garbage everyone in government does to protect their friends and screw you over if you aren't.

 

[Kevin2055]

Here’s hoping they’ll keep the 17 Pro at $999 but increase its storage to 256 GB, and will reduce the 17 Pro Max which is already at 256 GB to $1099. Call me an optimist…

no way the storage will increase

 

[Dr McKay]

Didn't this happen last time and it felt like every day Trump changed his mind about Apple or specific products being exempt?

 

[t0rqx]

Just because they gonna honour him with a orange/copper coloured iPhone.

 

[EugW]

no way the storage will increase

That's what they said for the iPhone Pro Max a few years, ago, and then it increased. Plus, even the base iPad has 128 GB storage now.

 

[gigapocket1]

Apple can pledge to do this or that. But we all know that it’s not going to happen… they’ll play a long. Test sites… even by land and break ground in the next 2 years. But it’ll never be finished. Or officially open. They only have to outlast the current president.

 

[Gasu E.]

I had no idea the electronic exemption from April was still a thing after all the flip-flopping.

This is the first Wednesday of the month policy. Try to keep up.

 

[Gasu E.]

Never have run a business have you? Government, at all levels, gives certain deals to some businesses over others. Bids written to make sure their friends or contacts are the best one to bid on project. Requirements that narrow technology to one company. All sorts of garbage everyone in government does to protect their friends and screw you over if you aren't.

What business did you run, where you encountered this?

 

[Gasu E.]

Yes you right in the short term. long term tariffs will push things back to the US just like Free trade pushed jobs out of the USA in the long term. In the short term with Free Trade it was high life for the USA with cheap products, then long term it was cheap products no one could afford because all the jobs left for other countries.

THe problem with that is that no one can make an even reasonable guess as to how long "long term" is going to be. Because of the complexity of supply chains, even a single mega-sized manufacturing business will not have a near-complete model of it's entire supply chain. For example, Apple knows relatively little about the sources of screws that hold the iPhone 16 Pro together; pretty close to nothing about the steel that goes into those screws; and zilch about the mining, refinement, markets and distribution of the metals that go into that steel. That's just a silly example, but multiply it for the several hundred components of various complexity that go into each product, then by the number of products that Apple manufactures. Now multiply that by the several thousand companies that make up 90% of US brands by value. I recall about a decade ago, Apple was considering moving some product to USA manufacturing and one of the things that stopped them was-- screws. Apple likes specialty screws that you can't buy at Home Depot, and there was no US manufacturer that could handle the volume of custom screws that Apple wanted. So Apple had three choices: fund their own screw factory; stock huge inventories of specialty screws ordered from China, which would absolutely kill their JIT logistics; or punt. They chose the last option. Of course, it wasn't JUST screws-- it was lots of components for which they would have had to deal with in the same way. This is the problem with "bringing back" manufacturing. It might take thirty years to get it done. Over a period that long, things can change so drastically that any policy you can imagine now might not matter.