Donald Trump Urges Apple CEO Tim Cook: ‘Don’t Build in India’

CEO Tim Cook: US President Donald Trump has told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he does not want him "building in India" and that "India can take care of themselves".

He further said that India is one of the highest-tariff nations in the world and hence it is very hard to sell in India.

The US President said 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 US President said.

Trump made the comments during a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar, on his Mideast tour, first discussing Apple's plans to build manufacturing plants for its iPhone there.

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He further said that India is one of the highest-tariff nations in the world and hence it is very hard to sell in India.

Despite the recent tensions, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that trade talks between India and the US are still ongoing. Negotiations are continuing, and both countries are working towards reaching agreements.

During the same speech in Doha, Trump also said that India had made an offer to remove tariffs on US goods.

"They (India) have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs”, he said, without offering specific details of the offer.

Apple aims to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India by the end of 2026, and is speeding up those plans to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China, its main manufacturing base, a source told Reuters last month.

Apple sells over 60 million iPhones in the US annually with roughly 80% of them made in China currently.

For iPhones, manufacturing costs in India are 5-8% higher than in China, with the difference rising to as much as 10% in some cases, the Reuters report said.

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Apple has already stepped up production in India to beat Trump's tariffs, shipping some 600 tons of iPhones worth $2 billion to the United States in March. The shipments from India marked a record for both its contractors Tata and Foxconn, with the latter alone accounting for smartphones worth $1.3 billion, Reuters reported last month.

In April, the U.S. administration imposed 26% duties on imports from India, much lower than the more than 100% China was facing at the time. Washington has since paused most duties for three months, except for China.

Apple manufactured approximately 40–45 million iPhones in India in 2024, accounting for 18–20% of its global output. Of this, around 14–15 million were exported to the U.S., 13 million to other international markets, and about 12 million were sole in the Indian market.

Cook said the company expects the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. during the June quarter to be sourced from India. Almost all iPads, MacBooks, Apple Watches, and AirPods sold in the U.S. will be made in Vietnam.

“The existing tariffs that apply to Apple today are based on the product's country of origin... we do expect the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. will have India as their country of origin and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods products sold in the U.S. China would continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the U.S.,” Cook said during the company’s earnings call earlier this month.

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