"I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said of his conversation with the Apple boss in Qatar, where he's on a state visit. "He is building all over India. I don't want you building in India." As a result of their discussion, Trump said Apple will be "upping their production in the United States".
India has one of the highest-tariff barriers in the world and it's very hard to sell American products in the planet's most populous country, Trump said. He said, though, that India has made an offer to drop tariffs on US goods, as the Asian nation seeks an agreement on import taxes.
The US president's comments throw a wrench into Apple's plan to import most of the iPhones it sells in the US from India by the end of next year, accelerating a shift beyond China to mitigate risks related to tariffs and geopolitical tensions. Apple makes most of its iPhones in China and has no smartphone production in the US.