Apple is transporting 600 tons or 1.5 million of iPhones from India to the US to avoid Donald Trump’s tariff heat. The iPhone maker has taken this route to keep a stock of its inventory in one of its major markets, according to Reuters. Analysts have reportedly alarmed that the price of iPhones in the US is likely to soar due to the 125% reciprocal tariff imposed on China, the main manufacturing hub of Apple’s devices.
Apple lobbied Indian airport authorities to reduce the time required to clear all customs-related formalities at the Chennai airport from 30 hours to 6 hours, Reuters reported, citing sources. The company reportedly used a quicker process called a “green corridor” arrangement at the airport to transport iPhones to the US, the same route it takes at some airports in China.
Ahead of the ‘liberation day’ announcement, Apple ramped up its efforts to transport iPhones. Since March, around six cargo jets with a capacity of 100 tons each have left India.
The development comes after the iPhone maker has spent months increasing its production in India, including forming partnerships with many Indian companies like the Tata Group. The company is stepping up now to leverage the 90-day pause on tariffs announced by the US President Donald Trump on 75 countries, barring China.
The Trump administration has been pushing the American companies, including Apple, to return and boost domestic manufacturing.
“This is a great time to move your company into the United States of America, like Apple, and many others, in record numbers, are doing,” said the US President Donald Trump on Wednesday. Trump also promised benefits, including zero tariffs, almost immediate electrical connection and approvals and no environmental delays if these companies return to the US.
But Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has flagged issues like manpower crunch in America that will not facilitate mass production.
“You can take every tool and die maker in the US and probably put them in a room that we’re currently sitting in. In China, you would have to have multiple football fields,” said Cook in an interview.
Commenting on the shortage of manpower, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said America will have robots to work in factories.
