24-05-2025
Trump targets Samsung after tax threat to Apple for India shift: Wouldn't be fair
It seems Apple is not alone in facing US President Donald Trump's tariff threat. The eccentric US President has also targeted Apple's rival Samsung and warned that the South Korean company would also face a 25% import tax if its phones were not manufactured in to reporters in the White House, Trump said the tariff would apply to any phone manufacturer selling devices in the would be more. It would also be Samsung and anybody that makes that product. Otherwise, it wouldn't be they build their plant here, there is no tariff," Trump said.
The remarks came as he stepped up the pressure on Apple to build its iPhones in the country."I have long ago informed Apple CEO Tim Cook that I expect the iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America to be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US," Trump said in a post on Truth post saw Apple's shares falling 2.6%, wiping out approximately USD 70 week, Trump expressed his displeasure with Apple over the company's move to manufacture iPhones to be sold in the US at plants in India. The US President's tariff bogey hits the plans of Apple to diversify its production to analysts, around 90% of Apple's smartphones are assembled in China. However, amid the US's trade war with China, Cook said in an earnings call earlier this month that the majority of iPhones sold in the US for the June quarter would "have India as their country of origin", according to Samsung doesn't rely on China for smartphone manufacturing and a majority of its operations take place in India, South Korea, Vietnam, and South Korean tech giant closed its last phone manufacturing factory in China in 2019.
