US President Donald Trump said that his administration was considering whether to exempt Apple from tariffs imposed on China in an ongoing trade spat.
“We are looking at Apple,” the president told reporters during a tour of the company’s Austin, Texas plant, referring to the exemptions, but added that he hoped Apple would produce more in the United States.
“Someday we're going to see Apple building plants in our country, not in China,” he said.
China is crucial for Apple, representing one of its largest consumer markets, and the company also has several production facilities there.
In September, Apple already received some tariff exemptions as the trade war started hurting the company, but at the time five of its requests were not approved.
President Trump also said on Wednesday that no deal had been struck with China to resolve the trade row, arguing that Beijing was not “stepping up to the level I want.”
Tim Cook promised to contribute $350 billion to the US economy between 2018 and 2023 and leave the production of MacBooks in Austin. Since last year, the president has steadily hiked up duties on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese imports, including Apple components produced in the country, prompting the company to seek relief through exemptions.
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