US President Donald Trump says he asked Apple chief executive Tim Cook to stop building plants in India – and start making its smartphones in the United States, as it diversifies production away from China.
Speaking at a press conference in Qatar during his tour to the Middle East, Trump said on Thursday: “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” he said. “I said to him ‘Look Tim, I’ve treated you very good… but now you’re building all over India.
“I don’t want you building in India… because India’s one of the highest tariff nations in the world.. It is very hard to sell [US goods] in India, and they are offering us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariffs,” he said in a meeting with executives in Doha, the Qatari capital.
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Trump’s remarks on Apple and tariff negotiations with Delhi were big news on the Subcontinent.
New Delhi is seeking to clinch a trade deal with the US within the 90-day pause announced by Trump on April 9 on tariff hikes for major trading partners.
Reuters has reported that New Delhi has offered to reduce duties to zero on 60% of tariff lines in a first phase of the deal under negotiation with Washington, while offering preferential access to nearly 90% of the merchandise India imports from the US.
India’s equity benchmarks jumped to a seven-month high after Trump’s comment on the deal with India, but Reuters said the Indian trade ministry did not reply to a mail seeking comments on the proposed deal.
Trump said he confronted Tim Cook about Apple’s plan to shift production to India, as the American company moves 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 on Chinese exports.
“Tim, we treated you very 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, they are doing very well, we want you to build here”, Trump recalled himself telling Cook, who was not in the Doha meeting.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in recent years promoted India as a smartphone manufacturing hub and Apple’s suppliers have ramped up production in the country.
In March, Apple’s main India suppliers Foxconn and Tata shipped nearly $2 billion worth of iPhones to the US, an all-time high, to bypass Trump’s impending tariffs.
The United States is India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade totalling some $129 billion in 2024. The trade balance is currently in favour of India, which runs a $45.7 billion surplus with the US.
As a result of their discussion, Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.”
- Jim Pollard with Reuters
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