Dear Reader,
---ACTION REQUIRED---
NOTICE: Our next “Income Alert” will be issued Today at 2PM est sharp…
To claim your stake in NVIDIA’s #1 takeover target…
…make sure you go here now to get on the list.
But you have to get in now to be on our distribution list.
If you’re too late, you’ll see a “Membership Closed!” notice and will not be allowed in.
Get on the list before it closes >>>
===
Good morning!
Today, an update on tariffs, Trump and Apple:
Apollo Global Management’s Chief Economist, Torsten Slok, just pointed out it’s been nearly two weeks since the U.S.-China “trade deal,” “pause,” whatever you want to call it.
Yet, container traffic from China to the United States has not shown a strong rebound, which is very interesting.
It raises a couple of questions.
I’m looking at a chart here of container traffic and it’s a really small bounce.
So that raises the question, are 30% tariffs on China still too high?
Or are U.S. companies simply waiting to see if tariffs will drop further before they ramp up their shipments?
A lot of companies and people I know who import are importing from third parties, other countries, instead of directly from China.
Trade is being rerouted through Vietnam or China proxy firms in Mexico, etc.
It’s very ripe for fraud.
It’s just like high taxes.
People go to extraordinary lengths to not pay very high taxes.
They create all types of shelters and workarounds and I think we’re starting to see some of that with this tariff policy.
A big question people have started to write in to me about regarding tariffs is Apple…
President Trump slapped 25% tariffs on Apple because Apple chose to move iPhone manufacturing from China to India instead of to the United States.
Now, people who are really close to the actual manufacturing of iPhones, like Dan Ives at Wedbush - he’s got his finger on the pulse like nobody else - says if we manufactured iPhones in America, they’d cost $3,500 a phone.
That would completely change the market.
It would change who could afford them and how long they were held.
If you paid triple the cost at $3,500 think about what would happen…
It would slow the advancement of technology because people would own their phones for a lot longer.
Instead of keeping one an average of three years like most people do now, people would keep them a lot longer. Five, seven, even 10 years.
That would slow the progress and speed at which tech gets pushed out.
It would impact so many things.
But one way Dan Ives says Apple can placate Trump is by having the phones assembled in America instead of “made” in America.
You may not know this, but lots of products people buy say “made in America” and are not in fact made in America.
They were assembled in America.
As Forrest Gump said, “it’s a little white lie, it won’t hurt nobody.”
So the hope is Apple can placate Trump by assembling phones in America.
If they do, it’s estimated the cost of an iPhone is going to go from $1,000 to $1,500 on average.
That’s a 50% increase. But much better than going to $3,500 if we manufacture them here.
So if you’re Apple you’re almost better off to accept the 25% tariff and go about your business.
In the long term, President Trump, using the bully pulpit that was so effectively created and used by Teddy Roosevelt, is going to bash Apple until this gets resolved to a place he’s more comfortable with.
That’s all I have today.
Speak to you later.
0 Response to "Apple vs. Trump: The iPhone-Tariff Battle"
Post a Comment