Apple plans to cushion the blow from Trump tariffs by sourcing more iPhones from India

To offset the Trump administration's tariffs, Apple plans to import more iPhones assembled in India into the US. This will allow it to avoid 54% of tariffs on goods from China. Tariffs for India are 26%. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The decision is temporary while Apple seeks relief from tariffs, as it did during Trump's first term. The company considers the current situation too uncertain to cancel long-term investments in its supply chain, which is centered around China.

Trump has threatened to further increase tariffs on China if Beijing does not lift mirror tariffs imposed in response to US tariff plans announced on April 2.

iPhone sales generate about half of the company's total revenue. The company's heavy reliance on manufacturing in China has worried investors about potential tariff risks, sending the stock down 19%, its worst three-day performance in 25 years.

Before the tariffs were announced, Apple had planned to make about 25 million iPhones in India this year. About 10 million of those would be reserved for the Indian market, according to Bank of America analyst Vamsi Mohan. If Apple were to redirect all of its Indian-made iPhones to the United States, he said, it could meet about 50% of American demand.

According to TechInsights, the tariff on Chinese goods could add about $300 to the current hardware cost of the iPhone 16 Pro. Apple could limit its losses by importing smartphones from India, where the tariff is about half that.

While Trump has called for a revival of manufacturing in the U.S., analysts and suppliers have said that moving iPhone production to Apple's homeland makes no sense because the costs would be far greater than the cost of paying the tariff.