President Donald Trump says Apple could avoid tariffs on China by moving manufacturing back to the US.
Pool
Shares in Apple’s Asian suppliers dropped Monday after President Donald Trump tweeted that the company should move production to the US.
The Cupertino, California, company makes most of its products — most notably, the iPhone — in China, but Trump says it could avoid tariffs by moving manufacturing back home.
Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China – but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2018
“Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China — but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive,” he tweeted early Saturday.
“Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting!”
The tweet followed a letter Apple sent to the Trump administration saying that the proposed $200 billion tariffs on Chinese-made products would result in many Apple products getting hit by the 25 percent increase in import tax.
Shares in Chinese Apple suppliers like Luxshare Precision, Shenzhen Sunway Communication and Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing all fell by as much as 10 percent, Reuters noted, and Taiwanese suppliers fell by up to 4 percent.
Apple directly employs at least 80,000 people in the US and has more than 9,000 US suppliers maintaining manufacturing operations across 38 states, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Neither Apple nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.
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