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Apple considering making iPhones in America: Reports

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is exploring the idea of making iPhones in the United States after Mr Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election raised the prospect of a crackdown on American companies that manufacture abroad.

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is exploring the idea of making iPhones in the United States after Mr Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election raised the prospect of a crackdown on American companies that manufacture abroad.

Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant that assembles the iPhone at enormous facilities in China, has been told to study how feasible it would be to move production to the US, according to reports in Asia.

Mr Trump repeatedly criticised Apple on the campaign trail for making its products abroad and has threatened to slap import tariffs of 45 per cent on Chinese goods. “We’re going to get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries,” he said in January.

Beijing cautioned Mr Trump against a trade war this week, with the state-run Global Times newspaper warning of a retaliation that would see sales of US goods including iPhones cut off in China.

“A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by (France’s) Airbus. US auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and US soybean and maize imports will be halted,” it said.

Apple already assembles some Mac computers in the US, but shifting the 200 million iPhones it makes a year to the country would be a much more significant and costly undertaking.

The immediate impact of the switch could, however, be limited since the majority of the iPhone’s components are not made by Foxconn itself, but manufactured by suppliers and put together in China.

Estimates have suggested that the cost of assembling the iPhone in the US would only increase the cost of making the device by about US$30 (S$43), much of it in additional transportation.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported that Apple had asked its two manufacturers, Foxconn and Pegatron, to assess the cost of US assembly in June — several months before the election — but only Foxconn had complied.

The company may simply be assessing the measure to prove it would be prohibitively expensive, rather than seriously considering the matter. Apple did not comment. The tELEGRAPH

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