Speaking to reporters after dining with Apple's CEO,... U.S. President Donald Trump said Tim Cook voiced concerns about the impact of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and losing competitiveness against Samsung Electronics.
Kim Hyesung tells us more.
U.S. President Trump said Apple's CEO Tim Cook made a strong case about the difficulty competing with Samsung Electronics if Apple’s products are subject to import tariffs.
"...one of the things that he made a good case is that Samsung is their number one competitor and Samsung is not paying tariffs because they're based in South Korea and it's tough for Apple to pay tariffs if they're competing with a very good company that's not... And I thought he made a very compelling argument so I'm thinking about it."
Tariffs on an additional 300 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese imports, including Apple's consumer electronics goods, are scheduled to go into effect later this year.
Tariffs on iPhones and Apple's MacBook laptops have been pushed back to December 15th to accommodate the holiday shopping season but the levies on the Apple Watch and other accessories are still planned for September 1st.
Apple will be hit by tariffs as it assembles the majority of its products in China before importing them to the U.S.
Samsung Electronics, on the other hand, has a more diversified supply chain, with much of its manufacturing located in South Korea and Vietnam as well as China, meaning the tariffs will have far less of an impact than they will on Apple.
"Tim Cook's intention is to exempt Apple from the 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. Samsung Electronics won't be hit hard as the WTO's Information Technology Agreement keeps smartphones and laptops produced in countries like Vietnam free of tariffs. Trump is unpredictable, he may give Apple a tariff exemption or even look into imposing new tariffs on goods imported from Vietnam or India."
Late last month, Trump had openly refused to exempt Apple from the previous rounds of tariffs on Chinese imports via tweet, saying that Apple could avoid them by shifting production back to the U.S.
Given the slight change in tone, it remains to be seen whether the Trump Administration will come up with some policy measures to protect Apple.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.
#Trump #Apple #SamsungElectronics #tariffs
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