Told Apple CEO Tim Cook that I don't want him to build in India: Donald Trump

Told Apple CEO Tim Cook that I don't want him to build in India: Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump on May 15 said in Doha, Qatar that he spoke to Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook and told him there’s no need to build factories in India unless it’s to serve that market specifically.

"Told Apple CEO Tim Cook we're not interested in you building in India, they can take care of themselves," said Trump in Doha about his conversation with Cook, reported Bloomberg.

As a result of their discussion, Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States".

He also said that India has offered to drop all tariffs on US.

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, my friend, I am treating you very good. You are coming up with $500 billion but now I hear you are building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India, if you want to take care of India because India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world, so it is very hard to sell in India. They (India) have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs. I said Tim, we are treating you really good, we put up with all the plants you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves," reported CNBC-TV18 about their conversation.

"India has offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff," said Trump at an event with business leaders in Qatar.

Apple aims to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India by the end of 2026, and is speeding up those plans to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China, its main manufacturing base, a source told Reuters last month.

Apple sells over 60 million iPhones in the US annually with roughly 80% of them made in China currently.

For iPhones, manufacturing costs in India are 5-8% higher than in China, with the difference rising to as much as 10% in some cases, the Reuters report said.

Apple has already stepped up production in India to beat Trump's tariffs, shipping some 600 tons of iPhones worth $2 billion to the United States in March. The shipments from India marked a record for both its contractors Tata and Foxconn, with the latter alone accounting for smartphones worth $1.3 billion, Reuters reported last month.

In April, the U.S. administration imposed 26% duties on imports from India, much lower than the more than 100% China was facing at the time. Washington has since paused most duties for three months, except for China.

Apple manufactured approximately 40–45 million iPhones in India in 2024, accounting for 18–20% of its global output. Of this, around 14–15 million were exported to the U.S., 13 million to other international markets, and about 12 million were sole in the Indian market.

Cook said the company expects the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. during the June quarter to be sourced from India. Almost all iPads, MacBooks, Apple Watches, and AirPods sold in the U.S. will be made in Vietnam.

“The existing tariffs that apply to Apple today are based on the product's country of origin... we do expect the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. will have India as their country of origin and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods products sold in the U.S. China would continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the U.S.,” Cook said during the company’s earnings call earlier this month.