President-elect Trump says Apple's Cook wants to 'do something major' to build iPhones in ...
Just a few days before he is set to be sworn into office, President-elect Donald Trump continues to believe that Apple will make an effort to move iPhone manufacturing to the U.S., saying CEO Tim Cook has his "eyes open to it."
Trump said he believes that Cook "loves this country, and I think he'd like to do something major here," he said in an interview with Axios. Domestic manufacturing has been a key issue for Trump, who last year called for a boycott of Apple while on the campaign trail, though that initiative proved short-lived.
Cook and a number of other tech leaders met with Trump in New York City last month. After the meeting the president-elect was said to have sat down privately with Apple's CEO and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
The details of those meetings remain a secret, but Cisco Chief Executive Chuck Robbins told Business Insider that the larger group discussed a number of issues including taxes, trade and immigration. Robbins characterized the meeting as "constructive," "interactive," and with "lots of laughs."
"I think everyone that walked in that room put behind them whatever their political views were during the election," Robbins said.
Cook explained his presence at the meeting to Apple employees soon after, saying he felt it necessary to attend --?despite obvious political differences between Trump and Cook --?in order to affect government policy. Issues cited by Cook include privacy, security, education, human rights, and the environment --?all major issues where Cook and Apple's corporate policies are at odds with the incoming Trump administration's agenda.
As for manufacturing in the U.S., Trump has said he plans to create major incentives encouraging Apple to build iPhones in the U.S. He has promised a "very large tax cut" for corporations who bring jobs from overseas to America.
Trump's pledges have inspired a number of Apple manufacturing partners and component suppliers to explore their options for expanding operations in the U.S. Foxconn and its subsidiary Sharp, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Pegatron and others have expressed interest in taking advantage of business-friendly incentives from the Trump administration, though no commitments have been made.
Trump said he believes that Cook "loves this country, and I think he'd like to do something major here," he said in an interview with Axios. Domestic manufacturing has been a key issue for Trump, who last year called for a boycott of Apple while on the campaign trail, though that initiative proved short-lived.
Cook and a number of other tech leaders met with Trump in New York City last month. After the meeting the president-elect was said to have sat down privately with Apple's CEO and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
The details of those meetings remain a secret, but Cisco Chief Executive Chuck Robbins told Business Insider that the larger group discussed a number of issues including taxes, trade and immigration. Robbins characterized the meeting as "constructive," "interactive," and with "lots of laughs."
"I think everyone that walked in that room put behind them whatever their political views were during the election," Robbins said.
Cook explained his presence at the meeting to Apple employees soon after, saying he felt it necessary to attend --?despite obvious political differences between Trump and Cook --?in order to affect government policy. Issues cited by Cook include privacy, security, education, human rights, and the environment --?all major issues where Cook and Apple's corporate policies are at odds with the incoming Trump administration's agenda.
As for manufacturing in the U.S., Trump has said he plans to create major incentives encouraging Apple to build iPhones in the U.S. He has promised a "very large tax cut" for corporations who bring jobs from overseas to America.
Trump's pledges have inspired a number of Apple manufacturing partners and component suppliers to explore their options for expanding operations in the U.S. Foxconn and its subsidiary Sharp, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Pegatron and others have expressed interest in taking advantage of business-friendly incentives from the Trump administration, though no commitments have been made.
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Comments
But the first step is for the US to rough up the IRS, not the corporations. The problem with politicians challenging the IRS is a BIG one. Trump, who hasn't paid his taxes, is not the one to challenge them.
But now, even in the absence of Trump, it's not totally ridiculous. Labor costs in China have risen enough to make greater automation worthwhile. As production becomes more automated, the calculation on the location of production changes. For example, transportation costs become a larger issue, as does security (Apple already assembles servers in the US, and it's largely because they don't trust the security of things coming out of the Chinese supply chain).
Maybe Trump will nudge the calculation towards US production a little bit earlier than would have happened otherwise. But if production does move to the US, I think it would be a mistake to attribute it all to Trump (though I'm sure that mistake will be made repeatedly and enthusiastically by Trump and the press).
Apple themselves said it wouldn't necessarily cost a lot more to build in the US...its more about the type of labor over there versus over here. The reason why Apple produces the MacPro in the US is because its a very very low volume device to produce. They don't need to make 80 million MacPros as part of their ramp up before a launch.
You have to recognize that Trump is all talk at this point and he has already turned his back on many things he said during his campaign. His choices for his Administration aren't necessarily good ones for the good of our country and even some people who voted for him are starting to cast doubts about his abilities to run a country as big and power as the US. Its no where near the same as running his business. Not even close!
Of course he says he wants to create jobs...thats what every president says they're going to do. Whether or not they do it in 4yrs is another story and we'll see what happens with that as time goes on.
And beyond the tech industry, or even the auto industry, the other complexity that needs to be understood is that if workers here aren't making a livable wage, they won't be able to afford to buy the things that are made here in the US (which will cost more than comparable Asian-or Mexican-made products) - which then becomes even more of a problem if the foreign-made products face tariffs that increase prices. So you could have a situation where blue collar workers can't afford either US made or foreign made products.
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Perhaps, changing the tax laws, and actually ENCOURAGING manufacturers to invest in America is the right answer. Raising corporate taxes has shown us that it is NOT the correct answer. Trump has said that his plans include reducing corporate taxes, including a re-patriating tax so companies CAN bring home billions of dollars with relatively low tax rates. Currently, the USA has the highest corporate tax rate in the world - this is one of the reasons why companies are doing business elsewhere.
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Now, let's realize that there is NO WAY that we will move everything back here in the span of a year or two. As other posters have stated, we currently lack the support structure, and the manpower to support the manufacturing that Foxconn currently has in China. But, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Isn't it about time we start taking a few strides in the right direction?
Who needs actual facts when you pull something straight out of your rump to make an argument.
Manufacturing is just a small part of the products Apple sell. Only a small part of the money thus goes to China. The oversees profits from goods sold abroad, why the frack should those foreigners just allow it to leave their country if Trump tries strongarm them. They'll retaliate and Apple will be damaged.
Even if assembly came back to the US, there are hundreds of parts made by other suppliers. Forcing Apple in the US would severely constrain their selection of suppliers (cause they won't all move for sure...). Also president twit (sic) is acting like Apple is the only one making fracking phones and that repatriating would not have severe impact ton its ability to compete with Chinese makers in China and in the countries around them (you know the market that will that will be #1 for the next several hundreds of years). Short term thinking for sir nicompoop is expected.
Running a business where the only thing that matters is profit over people is the EXACT opposite of how you should run a country.
Right now most multi-billion dollar corps pay little to no taxes. Apple has over 100 Billion stashed in Ireland and it's been reported they pay 2%.
The reason businesses move overseas has to do with one thing-labor costs. Period. No matter what BS way they want to spin it, they have sold us out for cheap labor.
What we need are politicians who aren't being bought by these corporations and who will actually make them pay taxes for once like the rest of us. Trump has assembled the richest cabinet in all of US history full of conmen and privatizing dips hits who want nothing more than to make more money off the back of actually middle class Americans. Look at the lineup of them and prove to me otherwise. Good luck.
Why anyone thinks it's cool for Trump and his Billionaire cronies to make Billions and pay zero taxes is beyond me. And yet he and his supporters call themselves Patriots? What a joke.
I think the one thing we should all be able to agree upon is that we need to invest IN America and in Americans for once. The problem is the entire GOP and most of the Dems seem more than willing to do this by giving multi-billion dollar corps even more power and money at the expense of the entire planet.
This is just an excuse for us to look the other way, explain it away, so that we can all covet our iPhones as cheaply as possible.
And why do we want to bring that to the United States? And if Foxconn ever did that where would it be located? What city in the United States has hundreds of thousands of people ready and available to work on an iPhone assembly line?
As always, I encourage you to visit the Political Outsider forum if you want to talk politics... maybe read over our commenting guidelines too : )