President Donald Trump has warned Apple that it will be hit with a 25% tariff if it does not start producing iPhones in the U.S.
In a post on his Truth Social platform Friday morning, Trump wrote he had “long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”
“If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.” Trump said.
Trump’s post briefly sent shares of Apple lower by more than 4% in pre-market trading, and tipped stock futures into negative territory. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is now set to open lower by nearly a half percent, and the S&P 500 is set to slide about four tenths of a percent at the opening bell. Apple, with a market value of nearly $3.4 trillion, is the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.
50% Tariff for the EU
In a subsequent post, Mr. Trump also warned that he would impose a 50% tariff on the European Union, calling the group of countries “very difficult to deal with.”
“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable.
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In Europe, the shares of carmakers, banks and tech companies are among the worst hit in today’s stock market slump.
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Tell me again why we need European cars and French wine, when we can build our own cars and ferment our own wine?
People who say the selling price will be much higher are partly wrong.
The tariff is on the cost, not on the selling price
so if a product costs $100, and sells for $ 500 which is a nice profit of $ 400 ,
then a tariff of 50% would only raises the cost to 150, if they still sell it at 500 they are still making a huge profit of $ 350 on it
Tariffs should not affect the selling price much.
But there will be a lot of gouging, lying and cheating by crooked people trying to make more money and if they hate Trump it is a two for one for them, they will make more money and they will be able to blame Trump for the high selling prices, the media will help them spread those lies.
That was enlightening.