Tariffs or no tariffs, Apple (AAPL-0.39%) wants to raise the prices of iPhones — and plans to do everything possible not to blame President Donald Trump for the hike.
The Wall Street Journal (NWSA-0.90%), citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reports that Apple will tie the price hikes to design changes and new features to avoid all talk of the trade war.
The report comes after Washington and Beijing struck a deal to temporarily cut tariffs dramatically. The agreement, announced early Monday after weekend talks in Geneva, marked a pivotal step toward deescalating a trade war that has disrupted global supply chains, rattled financial markets, and strained relations between the U.S. and China, not to mention with other American trading partners. Under the terms of the truce, the U.S. will cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China will reduce tariffs on American imports from 125% to 10%.
That’s good news for Apple, which makes most of its products in China. Still, the U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports still include a 20% levy from before the latest escalation in the trade war. Trump said at the time that that levy was meant to combat the fentanyl crisis.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who attended Trump’s inauguration, has avoided taking a harsh stance on the president’s trade war despite analyses that it could cost his company hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter. Reports said that iPhone prices could rise thousands of dollars under Trump’s original plan, and Apple reportedly flew in a large stock of its phones before the tariffs were set to take place. Cook also said more iPhones sent to the U.S. would come from Indian factories.
Apple plans to release a new iPhone in the fall, The Journal reports, and the more premium models will remain manufactured in China. The company is reportedly trying to figure out if it could start making the phones in the U.S., but that process would take years.
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