A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy
A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy
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A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy
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267 comments
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As a global company, Apple could just re-establish itself in europe, e.g. Ireland, and continue trading with China, they can just put the US on hold for a couple of years.
Meanwhile for those who really addicted to istuff, coyotes can smuggle iphones across the border, so maybe this solves the fentanyl 'issue'.-
This is actually one of the best solutions to this problem I've seen this whole time. Expand it to include all affected US companies. What's she point of being a global company, if you can't leverage your globalized nature for your advantage?
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Also shows how much they actually can’t or won’t leave based just on just a (much needed) tax increase.
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But it's a removed to strap them on a coyote and get it go where you want it to go. Oh coyote as in a smuggler not the 4 legged canine type
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Yeah, but you just gave me an idea too, how about AI-directed canines? "apple-intelligence" applied to follow-your-nose. My dog loves to chase small spots of light, which might be a trick to steer them.
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Lmao the image of a coyote with a belt of iPhones around its belly and a laser mounted on a rotating turret on its back chasing the dot across the border is quite something.
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Apple already has an entity in Ireland which is the one that has most of the money. Google as well. When I pay my Google cloud bills, I don't pay the us business, but a separate EU incorporated business. So I think, if apple sells to Europe, none of the iPhones or iPhone parts have to go through the US or pay any tarrifs.
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And if chinese buy iphones, do they now have to pay 84% tariff? - maybe HQ in europe solves that too?
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Most Apple products are assembled in China — some in India and Vietnam — from parts made in the region so there’s no new tariffs involved. Only Americans will have to pay more. It’s sort of like how Toyota and Honda having plants in Alabama won’t pay import tariffs.
Cars might be a bad example because their supply chains are so complex. They’ll still be more expensive because the components are often made overseas and Trump, idiotically, has tariffs on those parts (and steel and aluminum to boot). But a “foreign” car that rolls off the assembly line in the U.S. won’t have tariffs while an “American” car assembled in Mexico will.
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But other businesses only have distributions centers in the US. So they import to US, pay tarrifs, and then I can buy from them in Europe, so indirectly I also paid the tarrifs. Even though product was made in China and I live in Europe.
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If anything good comes from this, it’ll be reforming that. Even if tariffs were still a couple percentage points instead of based on a formula zero economists endorsed, you shouldn’t be forced to pay (or the companies able to avoid) tariffs by using a distribution center in a third country. It should all be based on country of origin and final destination.
A Chinese (or American) company setting up a factory in Vietnam is an entirely different thing. I’m not talking about that. The product was made in Vietnam and real foreign direct investment happened that’s beneficial to everyone. I just mean logistics hubs should be irrelevant when calculating tariffs.
The “ideal” solution if we must use tariffs would be to take into account where it’s all made but that’s way too complicated to implement and easy to game1, unfortunately. An iPhone is assembled in China but using parts from all over Southeast Asia (and elsewhere) and with a substantial portion of the actual value coming from California and the UK. Where is an iPhone really made if a Taiwan Semiconductor fab makes a bespoke processor based on ARM but designed in California? “Made in China” is what’s stamped on the box (actually they put “Made in China, Designed in California).
And that’s just the processor and a few other advanced chips. I think Samsung makes the screens in South Korea based on technology developed in the U.S. by Corning. If Apple wanted to skirt tariffs under that sort of regime, they could plausibly argue that the assembly is worth $10, manufacturing is worth $90, and the design and software are worth $900. I mean, smartphones are commodities now. People use iPhones because they like the software.
Tariffs based on the final step of assembly don’t make sense for complicated products made by multinational companies in the 21st century. The world makes an iPhone. Accounting for it all would be impossible.
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coyotes can smuggle iphones across the border
Aaaaand the US is the new North Korea...
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Indeed it seems Trump picked up some ideas about "Juche" (national self-reliance?) from his best buddy "rocket-man".
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Hehe that is funny, sadly I think the US is Apples biggest market, so they probably wouldn't want to let go and give up any marketshare.
US usually is the most important market for most (international) companies I believe.
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US has only 4% of the world's population, there are now plenty of super-rich in China, India, etc. who like to flaunt i-stuff.
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I have no source, but I remember seeing a graph of where iPhones sell and places like China/India were 80% android phones (mostly Samsung I think).
I don't think the asian marketplace puts Apple products in such high regard as the US.
Samsung phones are still premium, I think they appeal more in other countries.
I see what you mean though with 20% of just China being almost the US population, but they are still losing 300m customers.
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Let me check if my silicon dealer can hook you up...
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In that case the EU will have to tax them proper.
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267 comments