Tariff? Long arm of Trump law may not pluck Apple off India

Apple Inc is unlikely to alter its India plans despite US President Donald Trump's incessant jibes at its manufacturing footprint in the country, experts told ET. They said "better sense would prevail," and that Trump was using the Cupertino-based firm as a bargaining chip to pressurise India into sweetening a proposed bilateral trade pact.

Trump on Friday said Apple will have to pay a 25% tariff if phones sold in the US are not made locally. "I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the US, not India, or any place else. If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US," he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Former chief executive of Tata Electronics Raja Manickam, who has founded fabless chip startup iVP Semiconductor, said he didn't believe Trump's statements would impact India's strides in the sector. "India is primarily involved in assembly, and even within that, India's piece of the pie is under $40," he said. Queries sent to Apple remained unanswered as of press time on Friday.


Analysts feel shifting manufacturing to the US is not feasible as it could price iPhones up to $3,000, taking steep labour costs into account.