Trump Tariff: Apple lifts five planes full of iPhones from India!

Amidst reports of likelihood of price hike in the Apple’s iPhone following announcement of retaliatory tariffs by US President Donald Trump, Apple reportedly transported five plane full of iPhones and their other products from India to the US, in just three days in the last week of March.

The urgent move was aimed to avoid a new 10% reciprocal tariff imposed by Trump, effective from April 5. It is learnt that Apple has no plans to increase the retail prices of their products anywhere across the globe, despite Trump announcing the tariff.

The sudden lifting of the shipment from India and China, the manufacturing hubs of Apple, is to mitigate the impact of the tariffs. By stockpiling the products, Apple will be able to maintain current pricing temporarily.

The products that reached US at lower duty will temporarily insulate the company from the higher prices, that it will need shell out for new shipments under the revised tax rates, sources said. Apple’s US warehouses are stocked heavily that would suffice for the next few months.

Apple is analyzing how the different tariffs across manufacturing locations would affect its pricing and supply chains. Tariff-induced price hike will not be confined to the US but will have to be borne by all other consumers across the globe, including India. However, India is better placed to be Apple’s ‘safest’ bet in iPhone manufacturing against China, given the 26% reciprocal tariff, compared to the 54% imposed on the latter.

In the future, India is likely to play an increasingly important role in Apple’s global production network due to the economic incentives that can be availed from the country, in terms of the lower tariff compared to other nations, where the company’s products are manufactured.