President Donald Trump is having dinner tonight with Apple CEO Tim Cook; trade wars are on the menu
Apple CEO Tim Cook told investors last week during a conference call, that the company could end up affected by the current U.S.-China trade war. The executive said that Apple is scanning a list of products that it imports from China; these items could be hit with tariffs of 25% or higher. While a report published by The New York Times back in June stated that Cook was promised by the White House that the Apple iPhone would not be affected by the trade war, that was later denied by White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.
Earlier today, the president tweeted that he is having dinner tonight with Tim Cook. Trump is currently on vacation at his golf resort in in Bedminster, New Jersey. The pair met at the White House in May as Apple's CEO tried to warn the president about the negative effects of a trade war between the U.S. and China.
While most Apple devices are designed by the company in Cupertino, they are assembled by contract manufacturers in China. Cellphones are the highest valued product imported into the U.S. from China, with over $70 billion worth of handsets shipped into the states from the country in 2017. That might be too big a target for the president to ignore. Should Trump decide to escalate the trade war with China even more, and include Apple's most important product, Apple will have no choice but to raise iPhone prices in the U.S. After all, the company's one trillion dollar valuation would be at risk if Apple decided to eat the cost of the tariffs.
Over $70 billion worth of cellphones were imported into the U.S. from China last year (figures are in thousands)
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