Doha: President Donald Trump asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop manufacturing in India and increase production in the United States even New Delhi has offered the United States a “no-tariff deal.”
The development is significant as it comes amid the ongoing tensions between India and the US over Trump’s claim that he mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said of his conversation with the Apple chief executive officer in Qatar, where he’s on a state visit.
“He is building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. India can take care of itself,” Trump said during his Middle East tour.
Trump referred to an earlier talk with Tim Cook after the US-China tariff talk in Geneva, when he praised Apple’s decision to expand manufacturing within the United States.
“I spoke to Tim Cook this morning, and he’s going to even up his numbers… $500 billion. He’s building a lot of plants in the United States,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
Trump also mentioned that India has one of the highest tariff barriers in the world, and it’s very hard to sell American products in the planet’s most populous country. Even as Indian government has “offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff”, it seeks an agreement on import taxes, the US president said.
The bulk of India-made iPhones are assembled at Foxconn Technology Group’s factory in southern India. Tata Group’s electronics manufacturing arm, which bought Wistron Corp’s local business and runs Pegatron Corp’s operations in India, is also a key supplier. Tata and Foxconn are also building new plants and adding production capacity in southern India, Bloomberg reported earlier.
Apple assembled $22 billion worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months through March, increasing production by nearly 60 per cent over the previous year.
Speaking at US-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum, Donald Trump also reiterated that he ‘used trade to a large extent’ to get India and Pakistan to halt strikes at each other
US President Donald Trump has yet again claimed credit for easing tensions between India and Pakistan, boasting that he brokered peace between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Speaking at US-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum, Donald Trump also reiterated that he “used trade to a large extent” to get the two countries to halt strikes at each other.
“Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan. I used trade to a large extent. I said let’s make a deal, let’s do some trading. Let’s not trade nuclear missiles, let’s trade the things you make so beautifully,” Trump said to applause from the audience.
Speaking on India-Pakistan understanding, Donald Trump said, “Both have very powerful, strong and smart leaders. It all stopped and hopefully it will remain that way…They [India-Pakistan] are actually getting along.”
“Maybe we can even get them together to go out and have a nice dinner. Millions of people could have died from that conflict that started off small and was getting bigger and bigger by the day.”
