Apple CEO Tim Cook, left, and President Donald Trump communicate to the press throughout a tour of the Flextronics laptop manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, the place Apple’s Mac Pros are assembled, Nov. 20, 2019.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook will join President Donald Trump on Wednesday for an occasion touting what the White House calls a brand new $100 billion investment dedication by the tech big within the U.S.
The announcement within the Oval Office, set for 4:30 p.m. ET, contains Apple’s dedication to a brand new “American Manufacturing Program,” a White House official confirmed to CNBC.
With the brand new pledge, Apple’s whole investment within the U.S. over the subsequent 4 years now totals $600 billion, the official stated.
Bloomberg first reported Apple’s new investment pledge earlier Wednesday.
The assembly comes as Trump has pushed Apple to make its merchandise in America — a feat that consultants say would jack up prices by lots of of {dollars}, if it could actually even be finished in any respect.
Most of Apple’s flagship iPhones have been manufactured in China, although the corporate is shifting a few of its manufacturing to India.
Trump has complained about that plan. “We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves … we want you to build here,” Trump stated he informed Cook in May.
On Wednesday, Trump introduced he’ll double the U.S. tariff rate on Indian goods to 50%. Trump stated he was elevating the tariff due to India persevering with to buy Russian oil.
Trump had exempted smartphones, chips and different tech merchandise from his early April “reciprocal” tariff plan, which slapped a ten% baseline obligation on practically the complete world and set considerably greater charges for dozens of particular person nations.
That exemption nonetheless utilized as of this week, following Trump’s govt order tweaking U.S. tariffs on a slew of nations.
And it seems to stay intact in Trump’s newest order ratcheting up tariffs on imports from India.
Apple declined CNBC’s request for remark.
— CNBC’s Steve Kovach contributed to this report.