Tim Cook, CEO of technology giant Apple, revealed in the company’s Q2 2025 earnings call that the country of origin for most Apple products sold in the US will be India or Vietnam, rather than China.
This comes as the US-China trade war persists. As it stands, the US has imposed a 145% tariff on China, while China responded with a 125% tariff on the US.
Apple, which reports estimate manufactures more than 90% of its iPhones in China, began exploring the diversification of its supply chain, reducing its reliance on China last year – before Donald Trump was elected as the 47th US president, for his second term in the White House.
Addressing concerns surrounding tariffs, Cook said: “The existing tariffs that apply to Apple today are based on the product’s country of origin […] For the June quarter, we do expect the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin, and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPods products also sold in the US.”
However, he explained: “China would continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the US.”
Cook also clarified that the “vast majority” of Apple products, including its iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro product lines, are currently not subject to the global reciprocal tariffs that were announced in April.
This, he said, is due to an investigation being conducted by the US Department of Commerce into “imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment and downstream products that contain semiconductors”.
This change in country of origin for US imports is not the only way in which tariff-related tensions might have impacted Apple, with the company’s Q2 2025 financial results showing a 2% dip in sales in China.
In a statement today [2 May 2025], a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce said: “China has noted that senior US officials have repeatedly expressed their willingness to negotiate with China on tariffs. At the same time, the US has recently sent messages to China through relevant parties, hoping to start talks with China. China is currently evaluating this.”
The tariffs and the associated trade war, this spokesperson said, were “unilaterally initiated” by the US. They called for the US to “show its sincerity and be prepared to correct its wrong practices and cancel the unilateral tariffs”.
If it does not, they said “it means that the United States has no sincerity at all and will further damage the mutual trust between the two sides”.
“Saying one thing and doing another, or even trying to coerce and blackmail under the guise of talks, will not work with China,” the statement concluded.
