US President wants Apple to stop production of iPhones in India
“I said to Tim Cook (Apple CEO), I am treating you very good. You are coming up with $500 bn, 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….”
Doha, May 15: US President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that India has offered to drop all tariffs on American goods.
Speaking at a business roundtable in Doha, Trump also said he had a “little problem” with Tim Cook, and he told the Apple CEO that he does not want him to build iPhones in India.
Trump, who is in Qatar as part of his four-day visit to the Gulf region, was talking about Apple’s plans to make iPhones in India.
“I said to him (Cook), 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,” Trump said.
“They (India) have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs. I said ‘Tim, we are treating you really 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’,” he added.
There has been no such announcement from India.
Trump’s comments came nearly two weeks after Cook said his company made quarterly records in several countries, including India.
Earlier this month, Trump had claimed that India “agreed” to drop its high tariffs “to nothing”.
In the past, Trump has called India “tariff king” and a “big abuser”.
Last month, Trump had said negotiations with India over a bilateral trade deal are “coming along great” and he thinks “we’ll have a deal with India”.
Congress questions PM Modi’s silence
The Congress on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “silence” on Trump’s remarks in Doha, where he claimed that India has agreed to “zero tariffs” on several American goods as against its “highest” tariffs, asking what linkage does it have with the stopping of Operation Sindoor.
“The Commerce Minister is in Washington DC and President Trump has made yet another grand announcement from Doha. There is total chuppi (silence) from our PM. What has he agreed to and what linkage is there between this and the stoppage of Operation Sindoor?” AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked in a post on X.
He also tagged a report quoting Trump that India has offered “zero tariffs” on several American goods as part of its trade deal with the United States.
India is currently holding talks for finalising a trade deal with the United States and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is in the US for the negotiations.
Congress’s data analytics department and Professionals’ Congress chairman Pravin Chakravarty, in a post on X, shared an old speech of Modi, in which he had said, “Ab ki baar, Trump Sarkar.” “Pakistan PM and India PM are equal. Pakistan and India are equal powers. Apple should not manufacture in India. Kashmir is an international issue.
“Only India’s sworn enemy would say this? No, these are by President Trump! Who went to US and campaigned for Ab ki baar Trump sarkar?” Chakravarty asked in his post. (PTI)