The most awaited and expected moment after Huawei placed in the explicit list of companies that need to revise terms of trade. It was expected that sooner or later the impact of tech war in view of enhanced tariffs would have an impact on Apple so is here.
Apple has urged the US administration that proposed tariffs on Chinese imports would be counterproductive, saying they would hurt the iPhone maker’s competitiveness and “tilt the playing field” to non-American rivals.
No other rivals have such tariffs enhanced and that will place Apple in a hot bowl to compete with rivals. Neither of any rival has shared in US market which has a tariff impact on them. It will force back Apple to reduce the investment and think out of the box to shun these tariffs. Apple has plans to invest $350 billion in over 5 years. It’s on record that Apple is the highest corporate taxpayer of the US.
Additionally, the company said the plan would “weigh on Apple’s global competitiveness” and effectively boost its Chinese rivals. “The Chinese producers we compete within global markets do not have a significant presence in the US market, and so would not be impacted by US tariffs,” the letter said.
Even Taiwan offered Apple to shift its unit to Taiwan to shun tariffs which are under consideration as a situation was expected after Huawei got in scrutiny list.
“Neither would our other major non-US competitors.A US tariff would, therefore, tilt the playing field in favor of our global competitors.” The US already has 25 percent duties on more than $250 billion of imports from China. Global markets are concerned about Trump’s threat to impose more steep tariffs on China, on an additional $300 billion in goods.
Apple, which according to some reports is considering moving some production of iPhones and other goods from China to India or other countries, said the proposed tariff list “covers all of Apple’s major products,” including iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods and AppleTV.