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A proposed $200 billion tariff on Chinese goods would affect the Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, Beats headphones, AirPort routers, Apple Pencil, Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard, MacBooks, Mac mini, and a selection of cables, chargers, and adapters, Apple said today in a letter sent to the U.S. government.

Apple's letter urges the Trump administration not to apply the tariffs that will affect Apple products and to find "other, more effective" solutions instead. According to the company, the U.S. will be the hardest hit by the proposed tariffs, leading to lower U.S. growth and competitiveness and higher prices for U.S. consumers.

19385-19730-czquuifvqaew02p-l.jpg
Apple CEO Tim Cook with Donald Trump at the Executive Tech Summit at Trump Tower in December 2016
The proposed tariff list covers a wide range of Apple products and the products used in our U.S. operations: Apple digital health and wireless connectivity products, including Apple Watch, Apple Pencil and Air Pods; Apple computing tools such as MacMini; Apple adapters, cables and chargers engineered for efficiency and safety; Apple-designed components and made-to-specification tooling for Apple's U.S. manufacturing and product repair facilities; specialty testing equipment for Apple's U.S. product development labs; and servers, hard drives and cables for Apple's U.S. data centers that support our global services such as the App Store.
According to Apple, the tariffs will increase the cost of its U.S. operations, divert resources, and disadvantage Apple compared to foreign competitors, leading to more expensive Apple products for customers.
Second, because all tariffs ultimately show up as a tax on U.S. consumers, they will increase the cost of Apple products that our customers have come to rely on in their daily lives. For example, the proposed tariffs cover Apple Watch, which has become the top-selling smart-watch in the U.S. and globally.

Since we introduced Apple Watch a few years ago, we have heard from users about how it has changed, and in some cases saved, their lives. Apple Watch is also being used in conjunction with American universities to help individuals to manage health conditions such as epilepsy and post-heart attack recovery.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in July that Apple was evaluating the fourth tariff the United States plans to implement and would comment on its impact on Apple at a later date, which is what today's letter pertains to. Cook called the examination of the tariff "a tedious process" because of the need to consider not only revenue, but also purchases being made through other companies unrelated to revenue, such as data centers.

The United States has already put three sets of tariffs in place affecting steel, aluminum, and $50 billion worth of other goods from China, but none of these tariffs have impacted Apple products and devices.

When commenting on tariffs in July, Cook said that while Apple believes the trade agreements the U.S. has with other major economies are in need of modernization, tariffs are not the right approach. Cook said Apple is, however, "optimistic" the tariff issue will be sorted out, and that the company is hoping "calm heads prevail."

Apple shares dropped following the tariff news.



Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues 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: Proposed Tariffs Will Impact Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, Mac Mini and More
 

jimbobb24

macrumors 68040
Jun 6, 2005
3,129
4,973
Tariffs may be useful as a negotiating tactic, but long term just foolish. They often just put money in the hands of powerful corporations or lobbies- the best example being sugar. Lets hope they are brief and result in more free trade deals.
 
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anshuvorty

macrumors 68040
Sep 1, 2010
3,283
4,592
California, USA



A proposed $200 billion tariff on Chinese goods would affect the Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, AirPort routers, Apple Pencil, Mac mini, and a selection of cables and adapters, Apple said today in a letter sent to the U.S. government.

This might sound like a stupid question but why isn't the iPhone on this list of affected goods? Isn't the iPhone manufactured in China like the rest of these products?

Thanks!
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
12,942
19,247
Central U.S.
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.

The Lodestar Resistance needs to get their crap together and fix this mess.
 
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gaximus

macrumors 68020
Oct 11, 2011
2,150
4,201
Plus the magical 30% Apple Tax, cherry on top.
[Bin counters will never, ever, pass-on cost without margin tagged-on.]

And they shouldn't, if your building a product, and the price of the materials go up, you need to raise your prices, and not just by the price of the increase, but by the percentage of the price increase, to keep up with inflation.
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,745
6,842
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
This might sound like a stupid question but why isn't the iPhone on this list of affected goods? Isn't the iPhone manufactured in China like the rest of these products?

Thanks!

maybe because there are various levels of government that use iPhones? Budgets are pretty strict so increasing in pricing during contractual agreements with service providers (carriers) would not go too well. iPhone get's excepted form Tarrifs :D

not likely.
 

supercoolmanchu

macrumors 6502
Mar 5, 2012
355
623
Hollywood
I imported a Chinese piece of equipment on 3 July 2018. It did not clear customs till 20 Sep 2018. Trump tariffs were instituted 1 Sep 2018. Customs takes about a week to clear if it is slow. They charged me $1928 on purpose. I was Trumped.

Well imagine on the other side in China, having to buy from the USA, then getting clobbered on tariffs from the Chinese government.
 

tipoo

macrumors 6502a
Jan 5, 2017
538
678
Tariffs may be useful as a negotiating tactic, but long term just foolish. They often just put money in the hands of powerful corporations or lobbies- the best example being sugar. Lets hope they are brief and result in more free trade deals.


Pretty well what I think. If it pressures China to drop their trade barriers, ok, a bit of short term pain is tolerable. But adding these tariffs with no plan to remove them longer term would be really dumb.
 

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,519
2,930
Buffalo, NY
Tim Cook must be really distressed by the thought that Apple will only make $40 per dongle instead of $45.

In all seriousness, Apple under Tim Cook will pass this onto the customer so hopefully it is just a negation tool towards a better trade deal.

EVERY company will increase the price of their products relative to the tariff.

The only losers are the American people.

The idea of a tariff is to increase the price of foreign imported items so that American companies can compete. It works for very similarly priced products, but because manufacturing is so much cheaper in China, the prices are just too far out of whack.

For example, if I want to buy an American-made plastic chair, I'll pay $30. The same Chinese-made plastic chair is $5. After the tariff, the Chinese-made plastic chair will be $7. This won't influence any people to buy the American-made version, it will just take $2 out of everyone's pockets.
 

supercoolmanchu

macrumors 6502
Mar 5, 2012
355
623
Hollywood
Plus the magical 30% Apple Tax, cherry on top.
[Bin counters will never, ever, pass-on cost without margin tagged-on.]

It’s like there’s this thing called business, and you have no idea how it even works, but instead have this inherent bias that making money is evil and use that as your default view filter.

Which I guess is cool, but that kinda moralizing was worn rather thin by most religions over thousands of years, not sure why it needs to be re-adopted for the f@#*$%! computer biz. o_O
 
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