The president elect Donald Trump had a phone call with Apple CEO Tim Cook, proposing some incentives to convince the high tech company moving iPhones production in the United States.
Trump's Call With Tim Cook
During his meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 22, with The New York Times, Trump gave details about the phone calls he'd had with two prominent tech figures, Bill Gates and Tim Cook. About his phone call with Cook, he said that he told the Apple CEO that he considers as a great personal achievement if he will be able to convince Apple to build many big manufacturing facilities in the United States instead of going to China or to Vietnam.
Trump told Cook that he will create the incentives for Apple, including a very large tax cut for corporations. He also offered to deregulate many things. However, an issue against this plan is that iPhones might cost a lot more if they would be manufactured in the U.S.
The offer coming from the president elect Trump is coming after he previously suggested boycotting Apple products after the tech giant refused to hack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists. Apple did not comment on Trump's recent proposal.
Trump is not the only political figure who thinks Apple and other high tech companies should produce more in the U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is another politician who declared that he wants Apple to return manufacturing in the homeland.
According to CNET, the president-elect is taking a deal-making, more pragmatic approach on his relationship with Apple. During the election campaign Trump was critical regarding Apple's renegade nature. For instance, in a speech at Liberty University, Trump said that it is necessary that Apple starts building computers and other devices in the United States instead of other countries.
Trump has a personal interest in Apple's continued success, since he declared that he owns millions of dollars of company's stock. But he explained that this is no cause of concern, because the president cannot have any conflict of interest. According to him, this is called a win-win situation in business.
Not An Easy Task
According to The Verge, convincing the tech giant Apple to move its iPhones manufacturing facilities back to the U.S. won't be an easy task. In the last few years, American manufacturing jobs have been disappearing fast. In fact, according to CNN Money, the country lost millions of manufacturing jobs in the last decade and a half.
The potential to convincing Apple to build iPhones in the U.S. does not appear to have high odds. In fact, Steve Jobs told President Obama back in 2011 that "those jobs aren't coming back." As reported by the website fivethirtyeight.com, today there are no more chances that manufacturing job are returning to the U.S. than back in 2011. Actually, they might never come back.
China's cheap labor is not the only reason why Apple and other American tech companies go to look abroad. According to Forbes, Apple also has a deep reliance on having many components of its supply chain in roughly the same place. This ensures a certain production efficiency and re-creating the same conditions in the U.S. would be no cheap or easy task.
