US President Donald Trump believes that technology giants such as Apple can now produce products outside China. In this regard, especially iPhone production can be drawn into the US borders, he says. White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt’s latest statements reinforce this approach. Apple’s $ 500 billion investment plan has become one of the basic basis for this view.
According to Leavitt; If Apple directs such a large investment to the US, he must think that production is possible. This perspective also coincides with the economic nationalism approach of the Trump administration. However, economists say that this investment is already close to Apple’s usual spending items. Therefore, there are doubts that investment does not mean production shift.
Meanwhile, US Trade Minister Howard Lutnick also brought this possibility back to the agenda with a statement at the weekend. Lutnick implies that even the screws of iPhones can now be installed in the United States under the influence of tariffs. Maggie Haberman from the New York Times asked whether this idea was supported by Trump. Leavitt answered this question without hesitation.
Leavitt argued that the US has the necessary workforce, resources and technical infrastructure. He stated that Trump had the same opinion. Although this approach gives economic hope, the number of those who share the same view in the world of technology is quite limited. Explanations from Apple’s senior executives reveal a different picture.
Walter Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs” biography includes very clear statements on this issue. In his talks with Barack Obama, the president of the time, Jobs made clearly explained why iPhone production was not possible in the USA. Apple said that 30 thousand qualified engineers supporting the production power of 700 thousand people in China were not in the USA. According to Jobs, this number was too high that America could not provide.
Tim Cook expressed the same idea again years later. In his speech at the Fortune Global Forum in 2017, he said that China was preferred because of technical capabilities and qualified workforce density, not because of the cheap labor force of China. The intensity of China, especially in advanced technical fields such as mold engineering, was unique in terms of meeting Apple’s production needs. Cook said that in the USA, expert engineers in this field could not gather even in a hall, and in China, these people could fill the stadiums.
In addition, Apple’s production model is not limited to the labor force. Factors such as advanced supply chain network, logistics capacity and fast engineering transformations are also activated. China’s system has established in these areas over the years, Apple’s production decisions directly affect. Therefore, it is clear that this work cannot be solved only with employment.
Apple’s investments in the US are mostly directed to R & D, data centers and renewable energy projects. This weakens the possibility of production to be moved to America in the short term. Despite everything, as political pressures and tariffs increase, Apple can be expected to draw certain production branches to the United States to a limited extent. However, there are serious uncertainties about how sustainable this transition will be.
Donald Trump and his team hope to be wasted?
No matter how hopeful Trump and his team are, the technical reasons from the industry give signs in the opposite direction. It is not easy for a giant like Apple to reports its production with purely national approaches. China still has a great advantage both in terms of engineering infrastructure and supply chain efficiency. As long as this table does not change, the shift of iPhone production to the US may only remain at the discourse level.
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