US President Donald Trump revealed that he personally urged Apple CEO Tim Cook to halt further expansion of the company’s manufacturing operations in India. During his ongoing state visit to Qatar, Trump told Cook, who was present along with other business leaders, that the US government is not interested in Apple building in India, adding that India can take care of itself and is already doing very well.
In a press conference Trump says, “I had a little problem with TimCook 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) has 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”
It is a well-known fact that President Trump has long criticized trade imbalances and foreign tariff structures, including India’s steep duties on US imports as part of the problem. India, which recently brokered a trade deal between the United Kingdom and itself, is working now to break a similar deal with Trump’s US administration. Trump has often termed India as a ‘Tariff King’, highlighting high tariffs by India on American products.
However, if Trump’s recent China deal is anything to go by, Trump’s tariffs threats seem more of a rhetoric rather than actual implementation. China for example, witnessed a brutal standoff with Trump increasing tariffs on the country to over 120%, only to finally relent and bring them back to nearly original levels of around 30%. This, according to several experts, would have boosted Indian policymakers, considering how India is a key consumer market for most US tech companies, and one they do not want to falter with.
Trump then claimed that the tech giant is now preparing to increase its production footprint in the United States following the conversation. This stance emerges amidst escalating trade tensions and the implementation of reciprocal tariffs (primarily targeting China), which are clearly impacting the global manufacturing strategies of major US tech firms, including Apple.
At the same time, the iPhone maker has been progressively increasing its manufacturing footprint in India, aiming to reduce its reliance on Chinese production. The company has been producing iPhones in India since 2017, initially focusing on base models. In recent years, Apple expanded its Indian production to include higher-end models like the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. Recently, the tech titan started iPhone production at a new Tata plant in Tamil Nadu (India) as well.
Even in the fiscal year ending March 2025, the company reportedly produced around $22 billion worth of iPhones in India (a 60% surge compared to the previous year). Currently, roughly 1 in every 5 iPhones sold globally is assembled in India. Additionally, in March, the Cupertino giant shipped over $1.5 billion worth of iPhones from India to the US. The Trump comment comes at a time when, during the Q2 2025 earnings call earlier this month, Tim Cook highlighted the relocation of a major portion of iPhone production from China to India and Vietnam.
Previously, in April 2025, President Trump imposed tariffs of up to 27% on a wide range of Indian goods. In response, Indian negotiators are now rushing to reach a trade deal before the 90-day grace period expires on July 9. Actually, this grace period was granted by Trump to delay further tariff increases. The development is notable since, until recently, the US was India’s biggest trading partner, with trade between the two nations amounting to $190 billion.
Earlier this week, the US and China agreed to roll back some of their steep import taxes, signaling a potential easing of the prolonged trade war. US tariffs on Chinese imports will drop significantly from 145% to 30%, while China will reduce duties on selected American goods from 125% to 10%. Experts believe that the renewed warming of relations between China and the US could slow down India’s plans to become a major manufacturing hub.
Content originally published on The Tech Media – Global technology news, latest gadget news and breaking tech news.
