Apple says Trump tariffs would 'tilt the playing field' in favor of competitors

Apple has formally requested that the U.S. not impose tariffs upon its imported products in a letter, saying that it would greatly impact Apple's business, and unfairly benefit competitors.

Apple has reached out to Robert Lighthizer, the official U.S. Trade representative, and asked that tariffs not be imposed upon imported products from China. The tariffs would be applied to all of Apple's major products according to the letter, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and Apple TV, as well as parts used to repair devices within the US.

Apple had recently avoided new tariffs last month, though as many had suspected, the reprieve was somewhat short-lived.

The letter cites Apple as a "proud U.S. company and one of the largest job creators in the United States," as well as "the largest corporate taxpayer to the U.S. Treasury."

"Apple's products are used by American families, students, businesses, government agencies, schools, and hospitals," the letter reads, "to communicate, teach, improve health outcomes, enhance creativity and enterprise."

"The Chinese producers we compete with in global markets do not have a significant presence in the U.S. market, and so would not be impacted by U.S. tariffs. Neither would our other major non-U.S. competitors," said Apple. "A U.S. tariff would, therefore, tilt the playing field in favor of our global competitors."

Apple may consider moving production out of China to avoid tariffs, though there has been speculation that this will take several years to accomplish.

The letter states that the imposition of tariffs on Apple's products would result in a reduction of Apple's U.S. economic contribution, and decrease global competitiveness.

63 Comments

tzeshan 14 Years · 2350 comments

About 5 years ago

Samsung!

And Lenovo.

JWSC 7 Years · 1203 comments

Undoubtedly Tim Cook has spoken with Trump about this very issue multiple times. But I guess this letter puts it on the record, even though it won’t make any difference as to what Lighthizer and Trump will actually do because they’ve already made up their minds.

GeorgeBMac 8 Years · 11421 comments

JWSC said:

Undoubtedly Tim Cook has spoken with Trump about this very issue multiple times.  But I guess this letter puts it on the record, even though it won’t make any difference as to what Lighthizer and Trump will actually do because they’ve already made up their minds.

The push back is not just coming from Apple but from across the board.   Last week:
Over 600 US companies urge Trump to resolve trade dispute with China
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-costco-hundreds-of-companies-send-trump-tariff-letter-2019-6
~~https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/20/apple-says-tariffs-on-products-will-reduce-its-contrubtion-to-us-economy.html~~

Essentially, Trump is using tariffs as a weapon -- partly to help himself get re-elected by posing to as a tough guy standing up for his deplorable supporters.   They love it when he wears his little red hat and talks tough.

But, there are consequences...
Or, in physical war, they're called "Collateral Damage"or "Friendly Fire"

Like now the Fed is being forced to consider putting us back under financial repression (aka ZIRP) in order to counteract the negative effects of Trump's trade policies disrupting our economy.(corrected reference)

SpamSandwich 19 Years · 32917 comments

Tim Cook and/or the Apple board have been wearing blinders if they have failed to acknowledge political and business reality in this case. They should’ve been making plans to respond to tariffs on day one of the new administration. Did they think this President was kidding about following through on his campaign promises? Apple’s team has been negligent.