The Trump administration is reportedly considering to exempt Apple from the upcoming round of China tariffs on iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks reports WSJ. While this would ensure Apple devices stay competitive, Samsung’s current manufacturing situation could have a greater role to play in this decision.
Most of Apple’s manufacturing is based in China. So a tariff on imports from China will adversely affect the Cupertino giant’s sales in the country. And with iPhones and Macbooks becoming costlier, other brands like Samsung would get an unfair advantage. That’s because Samsung has shifted most of its smartphone and device manufacturing outside of China, in huge factories based in countries like Vietnam and India. So if Apple was to bear the brunt of the recent China tariffs, iPhones would get a lot more expensive as compared to Samsung’s flagship Galaxy series in the U.S.
“The problem we have is you have Samsung, it’s a great company, but it’s a competitor of Apple. And it’s not fair because we have a trade deal, we made a great trade deal with South Korea. But we have to treat Apple in a somewhat similar basis as we treat Samsung,” Trump was quoted as saying by WSJ.
Trump made this statement during his visit to the new $1 billion, 133-acre campus in Austin, Texas that’s being constructed beside the already-functional Mac Pro production facility. The campus will house 5,000 employees when it opens in 2022, which can be further scaled to accommodate 15,000 employees in the future.
UP NEXT: Samsung and Google Camera apps vulnerable to hijacking, fix is on the way
Comments