When President Trump pushed the rates on China for the first time in 2018, Apple started moving more production of iPads and AirPods to Vietnam and iPhones to India.
But with the return of Mr Trump to the White House, that strategy may have failed for the world's most valuable listed company.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said that the United States would bring 46 percent rates on Vietnam and 26 percent to India. The White House has said that the rates are immediately in force, but some trading experts consider them to be a starting point for negotiations to lower overseas rates for the time being and designed.
The proposed rates threaten to worsen the pressure on Apple's things. The company already has to do with 20 percent rates for products imported from China, where Apple makes about 90 percent of the iPhones it sells all over the world. Mr. Trump said that the rate would go to 34 percent under his new tariff plan.
A spokesperson for Apple refused to comment.
Although Apple is the most prominent technology company that feels the sting of rates, most other technology companies will see an impact – directly or indirectly. For example, Google and Microsoft are not that strongly dependent on international suppliers, but they have remarkable companies for consumer electronics. And the rates can increase the costs for building the huge, new data centers that the companies are planning to build new artificial intelligence technology.
The new taxes are part of Mr Trump's efforts to make world trade again with rates for every country that imposes reimbursements for American exports. American trade officials estimate that India has a rate percentage of 13.5 percent on American goods, with a rate of 39 percent on agricultural products. Vietnam has a rate percentage of 8.1 percent on American goods, with a rate of 17.1 percent on agricultural products.
But during a press conference in the White House, Mr. Trump said that the combination of rates, currency manipulation and trade barriers had a much more important impact.
The costs of 'mutual rates', as Mr Trump calls them, can bring Apple's things into a jam. The iPhones, iPads and Apple see that the company sells three -quarters of its almost $ 400 billion in annual turnover. With Mr. Trump who says he does not allow products from rates to be exempt, Apple will have to pay those costs that will reduce the profit, or indirectly pass on those extra costs to customers by raising prices.
The rates for iPhones and other devices imported from China will increase the annual costs of Apple by $ 8.5 billion, without any lighting from the Trump government, according to Morgan Stanley. That would reduce the company's profit next year by $ 0.52 per share, or around $ 7.85 billion. That would be a hit of about 7 percent in next year's profit.
The shares of Apple fell 5.7 percent in aftermarket -trading after Mr Trump's comments.
“Apple will take these new tariff numbers and place them in models that they have built up and know within a few hours how big a problem they have,” said Anna-Katrina Shedletletsky, the founder of Instrumental, a company in Bay Area that uses artificial intelligence to improve production performance. She previously worked at Apple.
After Mr. Trump took office, Tim Cook, the Chief Executive of Apple, went to the White House and promised that Apple would invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States. In February, Apple followed that promise by promising to invest $ 500 billion in the country, with much of the money that is already part of the spending plans.
During the previous Trump administration, Mr. Cook's work helped to build a relationship with Mr Trump Apple helped to avoid the rates for most products. American trade officials In the previous Trump administration have not placed rates on iPhones and they removed rates from the Apple Watch.
In 2019, Mr. Trump through an Apple factory in Texas that made desktop computers. Mr. Cook stood next to Mr Trump when the president got the honor for the factory, which has made computers since 2013.
In the years since then, Apple has not moved the production of a single large product to the United States. Instead, it started an attempt to diversify outside of China.
In 2017, when Mr. Trump started in position, Apple started to set up assemblage lines for iPhones in India. It took five years to train employees and build the infrastructure to make its latest iPhones in the country. It is busy increasing production there, in the hope that the factories of the country produce around 25 percent of the 200 million iPhones that it sells annually.
The company also started the production of AirPods, iPads and MacBooks to Vietnam. The country became a destination for Apple and others after COVID-19 had closed factories in China in 2020, and the Vietnam factories were good for more than 10 percent of the top 200 suppliers that the company had in 2023.
Vietnam was an attractive location because of the proximity of China. India was attractive because Apple wanted to stimulate the sale of iPhones in the country, the second largest smartphone market in the world.
But Apple has struggled with American production in the past. The factory in Texas that Macs made had problems when some employees walked after their service, but before their replacements had arrived, forcing the company to close the assembly line. It also had difficulty finding suppliers who could make components it needed, such as an adapted screw.
Mr. Cook said that the United States does not have enough trained production workers to compete with China. During a conference at the end of 2017, he said that China was one of the few places where Apple could find people in a reliable way who are able to run the ultramodern machines that make its products.
“In the US you could have a meeting of tool engineers, and I am not sure if we can fill the room,” said Mr. Cook. “In China you could fill several football fields.”
