Trump Planning Semiconductor Tariffs That Will Impact Apple, No One 'Getting Off the Hook'

[DougiePhresh]

Honestly people, do you think hes doing this to pump and dump the market and make money hand over fist with insider trading, piss people off and cause riots so he can enact Marshall Law, or is he just that stupid he cant make up his mind and when the hell do things become stable?

Cause, im not paying 145% price increase on any apple (or any electronic device) for that matter all because of this jerk! Most of us arent going to do that.

I got to be real with you, im saving up for a new computer and i dont know if im going to end up being charged double, or if its even worth it at this point. Its so aggervating not knowing if the price today is going to be the same damn price tomarrow, all because of this orange oompa loompas ego and stupidity!

When does it end? When does sanity and stability return?

You realize that the tariffs are charged on the wholesale price of the good - not MSRP. An increase of 145% in tariffs does not necessarily mean a 145% increase in the final price. Apple has very healthy profit margin on their devices and accessories and will likely absorb a bit of the tariffs.

While I agree with you that Trump should not just be throwing out new tariff numbers every morning when he wakes up - I’d rather this, and know who is in control of the country than have a cabal of bureaucrats running the country from the shadows using Biden as a Manchurian Candidate. So please, when exactly are you referring to when you say “return to sanity and stability,” because it certainly was not 2021-2024.

 

[bluecoast]

There is no massive shortage of skilled workers in the USA.
I work in semiconductors in the USA. We are able to find skilled workers as long as we offer better compensation than the food trucks down down the road.

Given how much of the actual manufacturing is automated these days, it isn't like workers are pressing chips into sockets by hand. This stuff is surface mounted, and I have worked in those facilities, too. Training people to run tools like that is well within the realm of realistic for decent workers. You do not have to be a MIT graduate who narrowly missed out on a Nobel Prize to run a solder wave machine or chemical vapor deposition tool.

Apple surely prefers paying skilled workers $2.90/hour (via Foxconn), which they cannot do in the US, but there are skilled workers in this country. Since labor cost isn't the issue, according to Tim Cook (if you believe him), there shouldn't a cost barrier to manufacturing in this country. I get how it is hard to advocate for a $20/hour minimum wage while at the same time not paying your workers that, but that kind of is the square Apple is on.

Thanks for that answer. I don’t work in manufacturing but I was always very suspicious of what cook was saying about the cost & skill level of workers & you’ve shed light on this.

So it seems that Apple’s model is:

Outsource

Let the outsourcer pay workers less

Let the outsourcer work out how to construct the phones.

Keep a quite labour intensive way of producing iPhones as that creates more jobs (keeps the host country happy), which are paid so little it doesn’t add much to the cost.

 

[bluecoast]

Apple is both wrong and right. Ditto Trump.

Apple are being good capitalists and using globalisation to bring down the cost of making their products.

However, this is helping turn china into a geopolitical rival to the USA.

And to those of you who are American. I’m British. We used to rule the world. We thought it would go on forever as we were different from other countries. It didn’t. You get what I’m saying?

Remember that as people in the USA - and Europe - are squabbling with each other, china is playing the long game. And that’s to take over the reins from the USA.

I don’t follow the minutiae of us politics but it is perfectly possible that Trump is completely right in the big geopolitical sense and utterly self serving too. I’m not trying to say he’s a hero.

In the same way that everyone senior working at Apple HQ I’m sure are patriots, but also are more than happy to pursue a business strategy that is not helping the long term strategic interests of the USA.

So I think Apple should be building products in the USA. The USA needs advanced mass manufacturing and the ability to make smartphone processors and other components.

I’ve never heard a convincing argument from Apple - or anyone else - as to why this is not possible.

 

[AND411]

Congratulations to the 77,303,568 Americans who voted for this erratic and completely incompetent moron! Now everyone has to pick up the slack!

 

[H2SO4]

Apple is both wrong and right. Ditto Trump.

Apple are being good capitalists and using globalisation to bring down the cost of making their products.

However, this is helping turn china into a geopolitical rival to the USA.

And to those of you who are American. I’m British. We used to rule the world. We thought it would go on forever as we were different from other countries. It didn’t. You get what I’m saying?

Remember that as people in the USA - and Europe - are squabbling with each other, china is playing the long game. And that’s to take over the reins from the USA.

I don’t follow the minutiae of us politics but it is perfectly possible that Trump is completely right in the big geopolitical sense and utterly self serving too. I’m not trying to say he’s a hero.

In the same way that everyone senior working at Apple HQ I’m sure are patriots, but also are more than happy to pursue a business strategy that is not helping the long term strategic interests of the USA.

So I think Apple should be building products in the USA. The USA needs advanced mass manufacturing and the ability to make smartphone processors and other components.

I’ve never heard a convincing argument from Apple - or anyone else - as to why this is not possible.

Some good points. However, people will invariably do/take what they can get away with and companies are no different.
Western companies outsource because they can get away without paying for what the work really costs, (I'm including more than just monetary terms, (although there is a case to say everything comes back to that), for example we have the working time directive here which we believe is correct but that we would not stipulate our subcontractors abide by). If they did then we would truly have tariff free trading except for luxuries.
In absolute terms iPhones can be assembled anywhere. Avocados cannot be grown anywhere. So there will always be international trade.
Western countries are and have been for a long time very consumer oriented, very much about luxury goods and excess and if manufacturing is to succeed in these places the general public have to be prepared to pay more.
In the west, there is this mindset that they are above doing menial tasks and that will need to change if manufacturing is to really succeed.
Now of course not every single inhabitant will refuse to screw iPhones together or pick strawberries but you get the point.

 

[AND411]

I’m British. We used to rule the world. We thought it would go on forever as we were different from other countries. It didn’t. You get what I’m saying?

World history shows that no empire built through violence, murder, conquest, exploitation and slavery can last forever. Especially in the case of the British, who sucked foreign peoples dry for centuries, the will for freedom of the oppressed peoples triumphed in the end!
That is what happened to the Roman Empire.

 

[decafjava]

Let’s be real: Tangerine Palpatine isn’t “planning” anything. That guy’s skull is the equivalent of a glass jar full of dying fireflies.

On Thursday, he’ll wake up and see that tech stocks have tanked even further, and more “exemptions” will come in. Four days later, after Chinese state media calls him a dirty name, he’ll institute an eleventy billion percent tariff instead.

There is no plan. There is no rationale. There is only the ravings of a lunatic moron, who 70+ million of his fellow idiots trusted with far more power than he deserved or was ever capable of exercising with even a modicum of wisdom or restraint.

Don't insult Palpatine (leaving aside the RoS version) at least he was competent as well as evil.

 

[timber]

Whatever one might think of the whole tariffs strategy this uncertainty will certainly deny any possible positive outcomes.

Who is going to decide investment without knowing if anything will stick?

 

[Dutch60]

The current Congress won't. They are too scared to defy him. All we can hope for is that more people come to their senses and vote Dem at the next congressional elections on November 3rd 2026. Until then, IT'S CHAOS!

Could be too late…

 

[weckart]

So I think Apple should be building products in the USA. The USA needs advanced mass manufacturing and the ability to make smartphone processors and other components.

I’ve never heard a convincing argument from Apple - or anyone else - as to why this is not possible.

The US manufactures its own processors for strategically important goods - that is the arms trade. Consumer products are commodities and subject to market forces. That is capitalism. If the US wants to compete with low cost countries, it needs to become a low cost country. That is your first problem to solve. You can either do this by complete automation, which will not bring many jobs back to the states or is feasible right now, even for China or you slash wages and living standards and hope that costs settle somewhere close to match. Good luck trying to achieve in short measure what took China decades under comparatively stable governments not subject to voter whims.

Secondly, you need a huge influx of engineers and designers for electricals and manufacturing in general. The US does not have that nor the ability to conjure that up in short order. China has structured its education system and jobs market towards that. That will need to change, not only in the US but across the west. That is your second problem.

In short, the US is a mature market and has shifted from low value mass manufacturing to more lucrative services and relatively low volume high value manufacturing, as has most of the west. With the little unemployment it has, even with all those "illegals" supposedly taking everyone's job, you are going to have to pull people from their jobs to fill the gaps in manufacturing somehow. That is your third problem. Employment is a zero sum game when unemployment is low.

There are plenty of other arguments showing why changing the economic face of the US is not as simple as "we need to make more".

 

[iPadified]

US before Trump 2.0: a weak constitution and strong traditions - sort of working democracy
US after Trump 2.0: a weak constitution - not exactly working, is it?

 

[iPadified]

The US manufactures its own processors for strategically important goods - that is the arms trade. Consumer products are commodities and subject to market forces. That is capitalism. If the US wants to compete with low cost countries, it needs to become a low cost country. That is your first problem to solve. You can either do this by complete automation, which will not bring many jobs back to the states or is feasible right now, even for China or you slash wages and living standards and hope that costs settle somewhere close to match. Good luck trying to achieve in short measure what took China decades under comparatively stable governments not subject to voter whims.

Secondly, you need a huge influx of engineers and designers for electricals and manufacturing in general. The US does not have that nor the ability to conjure that up in short order. China has structured its education system and jobs market towards that. That will need to change, not only in the US but across the west. That is your second problem.

In short, the US is a mature market and has shifted from low value mass manufacturing to more lucrative services and relatively low volume high value manufacturing, as has most of the west. With the little unemployment it has, even with all those "illegals" supposedly taking everyone's job, you are going to have to pull people from their jobs to fill the gaps in manufacturing somehow. That is your third problem. Employment is a zero sum game when unemployment is low.

There are plenty of other arguments showing why changing the economic face of the US is not as simple as "we need to make more".

Completely agree. Too much focus on money and too little on human resources.

 

[Dutch60]

Sure, so let’s destroy the economy to the point where we pay more in interest on our debt than our entire tax revenue every year.

Looks like you Americans have been living beyond your means for far too many years. And then, sure, you have to pay for all this.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Also, those people you speak of aren’t here legally. You jump over the border, you’re not here legally.

Is Trump perfect?

Yes, he is perfect…in destroying everything positive the USA ever had.

Nope, not by any means. Is he better than the laughing hyena that the Democrats put forward? Sure is, by a long-shot. What was Harris’ plan to make the country better?

Maybe you should inform yourself better.

 

[Fukui]

Apple has very healthy profit margin on their devices and accessories and will likely absorb a bit of the tariffs

you have no idea how capitalism works lmao

 

[paulvee]

You realize that the tariffs are charged on the wholesale price of the good - not MSRP. An increase of 145% in tariffs does not necessarily mean a 145% increase in the final price. Apple has very healthy profit margin on their devices and accessories and will likely absorb a bit of the tariffs.

While I agree with you that Trump should not just be throwing out new tariff numbers every morning when he wakes up - I’d rather this, and know who is in control of the country than have a cabal of bureaucrats running the country from the shadows using Biden as a Manchurian Candidate. So please, when exactly are you referring to when you say “return to sanity and stability,” because it certainly was not 2021-2024.

Oh, you mean 2021 to 2024, when the country still had rule of law intact? What our economy was the envy of the world by every objective metric? When our institutions were still functioning? Before the military and DOJ were decapitated in the service of protecting one senile moron's quest for revenge? When people didn't worry about their social safety net? When diversity, equity and inclusion protected people whose rights had been trampled forever? THAT time? How good does that Kool-Aid taste and where are you getting your news? Because it's not coming from the reality-based sources.

 

[MilaM]

So I think Apple should be building products in the USA. The USA needs advanced mass manufacturing and the ability to make smartphone processors and other components.

I’ve never heard a convincing argument from Apple - or anyone else - as to why this is not possible.

It is possible to make electronics in the US, the products will just be more expensive and possible inferior in some regards. Since Apple would still have to compete with Chinese manufacturing globally, it would also mean that Apple's margins would likely be lower as well, with dramatic consequences for the share price.

 

[Ctrlos]

I cannot fathom why you wouldn't give your biggest and most well-known company an exemption. It would be like the Japanese government telling Nintendo they were putting a 200% on videogame software or the UK government putting a 200% tariff on Games Workshop miniatures.

 

[oldoneeye]

Apple will not be exempt from tariffs after all, with U.S. President Donald Trump working on new semiconductor levies that will likely impact Apple devices, chips from companies like Nvidia, and other electronics.

Over the weekend, the U.S. Customers and Border Protection agency shared a long list of electronic devices excluded from the current tariffs, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, the Apple Watch, and more. Apple scored a reprieve from the 145 percent tariff impacting goods imported from China and the 10 percent tariff on goods imported from other countries, but it doesn't sound like it's going to last.

On his Truth Social network, Trump said that no one is "getting off the hook" and there "was no tariff exception." Apple and other tech companies are "just moving to a different tariff bucket," with the 20 percent "Fentanyl Tariffs" still in place, and additional tariffs coming.

Trump said that his administration will be "taking a look" at semiconductors and the electronics supply chain in the National Security Tariff Investigations. He also reiterated that "we need to make products in the United States." Trump is expected to announce some kind of semiconductor tariff in the coming days.

Trump has suggested that Apple could manufacture the iPhone and other products in the United States, but even if such a move were not wildly expensive, Apple would not be able to find enough people with the necessary skillset to assemble devices in the quantities needed. U.S. manufacturing would also drive the cost of the iPhone up significantly.

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: Trump Planning Semiconductor Tariffs That Will Impact Apple, No One 'Getting Off the Hook'

Surely you pay tariffs on the product that is imported, not the components within it. The last "major transformation" is putting all said components into a phone. So you pay the phone tariff not the underlying component tariffs, which were imported into China not the USA.

However if he applied tariffs to semiconductors then, that puts a nail in the coffin for US based assembly

 

[MilaM]

Sure, so let’s destroy the economy to the point where we pay more in interest on our debt than our entire tax revenue every year. Sounds like a plan to me.

There is no question, that the US was living beyond their means for a long time. You can thank the Chinese, the Japanese and the rest of the world for financing your over-consumption by buying and holding US bonds and assets for decades. This can't go on forever, and it seems, that the current administration is keen to resolve this problem with a big bang which will result in a lot of economic hardship. The price of iPhones and the question of where it is produced will likely be the least of your concerns.

 

[Jashar7]

I thought Apple was working on manufacturing their custom silicon in TSMC’s Arizona plant.

That will never happen.

 

[oldoneeye]

The US manufactures its own processors for strategically important goods - that is the arms trade. Consumer products are commodities and subject to market forces. That is capitalism. If the US wants to compete with low cost countries, it needs to become a low cost country. That is your first problem to solve. You can either do this by complete automation, which will not bring many jobs back to the states or is feasible right now, even for China or you slash wages and living standards and hope that costs settle somewhere close to match. Good luck trying to achieve in short measure what took China decades under comparatively stable governments not subject to voter whims.

Secondly, you need a huge influx of engineers and designers for electricals and manufacturing in general. The US does not have that nor the ability to conjure that up in short order. China has structured its education system and jobs market towards that. That will need to change, not only in the US but across the west. That is your second problem.

In short, the US is a mature market and has shifted from low value mass manufacturing to more lucrative services and relatively low volume high value manufacturing, as has most of the west. With the little unemployment it has, even with all those "illegals" supposedly taking everyone's job, you are going to have to pull people from their jobs to fill the gaps in manufacturing somehow. That is your third problem. Employment is a zero sum game when unemployment is low.

There are plenty of other arguments showing why changing the economic face of the US is not as simple as "we need to make more".

Semiconductor manufacturing is more about capital costs than labour ..... If you look at the salaries on a Korean or Taiwanese process engineer you might be surprised. These are not "sweat-shop" careers

 

[Dutch60]

This orangutan the US has for president is going to run that country into the ground. Problem is he is trying to take other countries with him. I assume people whom voted for him now are having buyers remorse?

I'm afraid not…no remorse, I mean. For voting this orange retard, you have to be pretty dumb yourself. Rhetoric fantasies are still spread and so those voters will support his fairy tales as long as that great leader can think of another one to blame. Especially blaming for mistakes he himself makes.

 

[bluecoast]

The US manufactures its own processors for strategically important goods - that is the arms trade. Consumer products are commodities and subject to market forces. That is capitalism. If the US wants to compete with low cost countries, it needs to become a low cost country. That is your first problem to solve. You can either do this by complete automation, which will not bring many jobs back to the states or is feasible right now, even for China or you slash wages and living standards and hope that costs settle somewhere close to match. Good luck trying to achieve in short measure what took China decades under comparatively stable governments not subject to voter whims.

Secondly, you need a huge influx of engineers and designers for electricals and manufacturing in general. The US does not have that nor the ability to conjure that up in short order. China has structured its education system and jobs market towards that. That will need to change, not only in the US but across the west. That is your second problem.

In short, the US is a mature market and has shifted from low value mass manufacturing to more lucrative services and relatively low volume high value manufacturing, as has most of the west. With the little unemployment it has, even with all those "illegals" supposedly taking everyone's job, you are going to have to pull people from their jobs to fill the gaps in manufacturing somehow. That is your third problem. Employment is a zero sum game when unemployment is low.

There are plenty of other arguments showing why changing the economic face of the US is not as simple as "we need to make more".

Thanks for your thoughtful answer.

As you explain, I don’t think it’s as simple as turning on a tap in the USA (and Europe). Obviously it’s going be hard and expensive.

And I think it’s going to involve a lot of automation. Which will need less people.

You talk about full employment in the USA. Again, I’m not going to claim to understand fully what’s going on there, but I would imagine that apart from ‘culture wars’ reasons, that a good deal many people voted for trump is because they’re not exactly happy with the sorts of jobs and prospects that they have left. We see the same things playing out in the uk where I am.

And what you are saying as to how things work with manufacturing totally correlates with how globalisation and capitalism works.

But Globalisation assumes that capitalism has ‘won’ and the USA - and its allies - can then pick and choose which industries stay in the USA or are farmed out.

However, what I’m arguing is that we will find out that the upshot of globalisation is that china gets an awful lot of help in becoming a rival to the USA - and likely surpassing it if present trends continue.

And then the USA will find out quite swiftly that the world it’s not its playground.

 

[nikon1]

Thank you for stating this. While everyone is busy bashing administration, maybe they’ll realize that THIS is the actual issue.

Perhaps, before spouting your theory, you should read this link — an article written by industry experts as well as a former Apple engineer — detailing, in hard, real-world numbers, not the current administration’s “fantasy calculator” — as to just WHY Apple (& other manufacturers) cannot just bring manufacturing back to America. Of course, this assumes you are capable of digesting facts not just the “koolaid!”

Why iPhones Cannot Be Made In America

 

[bluecoast]

World history shows that no empire built through violence, murder, conquest, exploitation and slavery can last forever. Especially in the case of the British, who sucked foreign peoples dry for centuries, the will for freedom of the oppressed peoples triumphed in the end!
That is what happened to the Roman Empire.

Sure. Well I wasn’t exactly around for the British empire !

I was simply making a point that every country / empire that is at the top, thinks it will last forever and it has a ‘special sauce’ that makes it better than its predecessors. And then it finds out that, no it does not.