U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Apple, Inc. with 25% tariffs on iPhone imports if the corporate didn’t make them domestically. Repeating his insistence that he didn’t need iPhones to be assembled in India, Mr. Trump stated in a submit on Truth Social that “I have long informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s [sic] that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” including that if that doesn’t occur, “a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”
This shouldn’t be the primary time Mr. Trump has lashed out at Apple’s cellphone assembly operations in India, largely contract producers with services in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “We’re not interested in you building in India,” Mr. Trump stated he instructed Apple CEO Tim Cook. “They can take care of themselves,” he stated, including that he anticipated the corporate to begin assembling iPhones within the U.S. as a substitute.
Apple and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
When Mr. Trump first remarked on Apple’s manufacturing in India, a senior official instructed The Hindu that the federal government was not too “concerned” that the U.S. president’s phrases would have any impression on present manufacturing commitments the corporate has made in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere.
Ajay Srivastava, founding father of the Global Trade Research Institute and a former Additional Director General Foreign Trade, supplied an unconventional tackle the matter. He stated, “If Mr. Trump wants Mr. Cook to assemble iPhones in the U.S., the Apple CEO should deliver.”
“Shifting iPhone assembly from India to the U.S. could unlock over 60,000 new jobs, immediately rising to 300,000 if production also moves out of China,” Mr. Srivastava wrote earlier this month. “These are not high-tech desk jobs, but hands-on factory roles that once built America’s middle class. It’s a rare opportunity to turn elite tech into broad-based employment — and breathe life back into U.S. industrial strength,” he stated.
“It will also nudge India to focus on deep manufacturing and not be happy with superficial assembly jobs,” he added
Trump threatens 50% tariffs on EU as his commerce warfare intensifies
Further, Mr. Trump on Friday (May 23, 2025) additionally threatened a 50% tax on all imports from the European Union.
The threats, delivered over social media, mirror Mr. Trump’s means to disrupt the worldwide financial system with a burst of typing in addition to the truth that his tariffs have but to produce the commerce offers he’s searching for or the return of home manufacturing he has promised voters.
The Republican President stated he needs to cost greater import taxes on items from the EU, a long-standing U.S. ally, than from China, a geopolitical rival that had its tariffs lower to 30% this month so Washington and Beijing may maintain negotiations.
Mr. Trump was upset by the shortage of progress in commerce talks with the EU, which has proposed mutually chopping tariffs to zero even because the president has publicly insisted on preserving a baseline 10% tax on most imports.
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. “Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States.”
The core of Mr. Trump’s argument towards the EU is that America runs a “totally unacceptable” commerce deficit with the 27 member states. Countries run commerce deficits after they import extra items than they export.
Published – May 23, 2025 06:12 pm IST