Trump Declares That iPhones Should Be More Expensive
President Donald Trump threatened on Friday morning to raise prices on iPhones sold in the United States, as he threatened to slap a 25 percent tariff on Apple smartphones that aren’t built in the United States.
“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s (sic) that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”
In either outcome, consumers will have to pay more. A 25 percent tariff on iPhones built in other countries would, of course, artificially inflate prices. On the other hand, an American-made iPhone would likely be even more expensive: one estimate pegs the cost of an American-made iPhone at around $3,500.
Other experts doubt that such a product would ever exist—in all likelihood, Apple would rather pay the tariff rather than shift its manufacturing supply chains. “It’s just not a reality that on the time frame of imposing tariffs that this is going to shift manufacturing here. It’s pie in the sky,” Jeff Fieldhack, research director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC in April when the White House was making noises about the desire for an American-made iPhone.
“It’s easier to teach a bald eagle to use a screwdriver,” concludes the Journal‘s Joanna Stern after surveying several tech manufacturing experts.
Since it would cost way more to build new factories, comply with American regulations, and pay American workers to build iPhones, the most likely outcome of this policy is that Apple would simply pay the high import taxes and pass those costs along to consumers. In other words, Americans will end up with more expensive phones and no new factory jobs.
Of course, that assumes these tariffs ever actually exist. We’ve now seen Trump repeatedly threaten,
Article from Reason.com
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