US President Donald Trump's BIG message to iPhone-maker Apple, asks CEO Tim Cook not to..., has this India connection

US President Donald Trump has made a big statement about India after trade tariff issue. As the big tech firm Apple has announced iPhone production in India, Trump told its CEO Tim Cook to “not build in India” and that “India can take care of themselves”. Trump made this statement after the two met at a business event in Doha.  

Trump suggests Tim Cook for production in US not India  

Talking at the event, Trump said that he had a "little problem" with Tim Cook. “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,” the President said. 

Donald Trump is one a four-day visit to gulf countries like Qatar, UAE and others to discuss key investments and trade agreements. During talks, Trump said that he had problems with Apple iPhone’s production in India which should be instead done in the USA. Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.” 

After this statement of Trump, the question is whether the iPhone maker will start production in USA. The iPhone maker’s move to shift to India has been part of a strategy driven by the escalating trade tensions and high reciprocal tariffs announced by both China and US against each other, so Apple decided to transition all production of iPhones destined for the US market to India from China. 

Will Tim Cook start production in the US? 

Also, the possible reason why Apple CEO wants iPhone production in India is because countries like China and India provide it cheap labour and overall production cost. Another aspect is that it would need high technology for iPhone production in the US. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in an interview with CNBC earlier had said that when he talked to Tim Cook regarding this he said, “I need to have the robotic arms to do it at a scale and precision that would allow me to bring it here.” 

The statement comes amid Apple’s rapid expansion of its iPhone production in India as the IT company has manufactured around $22 billion (Rs 1,882,225,268,000) worth of Apple phones until March this year. India has three production plants in India, two in Tamil Nadu and one in Karnataka.  

Trump and India’s trade tariffs  

Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that India had offered the US a nearly no-tariff deal on a reciprocal basis. “They have offered us a deal where we're basically they're willing to literally charge us no tariff,” President Trump said while addressing a news conference in Doha.  

Amid the India US trade tariff, the former has imposed a 10% tariff on all imports from India. Also, a 26% of reciprocal tariff is also imposed on Indian exports to the US which is not applicable for 90 days until July 8, 2025.