Trump tariffs: Why Apple picks China for manufacturing? CEO Tim Cook’s striking reply; ‘It’s not cheap labour…’ | Watch

Trump tariffs: Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook has clarified that the American multinational tech bellwether chooses China for manufacturing not because of the South Asian nation's low labor cost but because of its ‘great tooling skills'. The tech billionaire's comments assume significance amid the critically escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

In a video shared on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) by an analyst, Apple CEO Cook is heard explaining that there is '"confusion" about China. Giving his opinion, Cook said, “The popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor costs. I'm not sure what part of China they go to, but the truth is China stopped being the low labor cost country years ago,” claimed Tim Cook.

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Why does Apple pick China as manufacturing hub? Tim Cook explains

According to the Apple CEO, China is the manufacturing hub of several top tech companies because of the prevalent ‘quantity of skill’ in one location and the type of skill. 'The products we require need advanced tooling and the precision that you have to have in tooling and working with materials that we do are state-of-the-art," said Cook on his experience of manufacturing in China.

He claimed that the ‘tooling skill’ in China is ‘very deep’. Highlighting a stark comparison of tooling skills prevalent in China and the US, the Apple chief explained, “In the US, you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I'm not we could fill the room.” However, in China, “you could fill multiple football fields,”. “Hence, the vocational expertise in China is very deep,” said Tim Cook.

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UC-China trade war

Donald Trump unleashed tariff hikes across nations after taking charge as the 47th US President in the White House in January. On April 2, Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs, only to declare a pause on them for 90 days, except for China. The country has retaliated with its own tariff hikes on US imports.

In the latest salvo, China increased its tariffs on US imports to 125 per cent, escalating the trade war that has hit global markets. China retaliated after Trump on Thursday doubled down by raising tariffs to an effective rate of 145 per cent, even as he announced the 90-day tariff reprieve on most trading partners.

China is open to dialogue with the US but this must be on the basis of mutual respect and equality, an official said. The statement came a day after Donald Trump told media that "China wants to make a deal. They just don't know how quite to go about it."

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Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jia said Beijing is not looking to fight a trade war, but will not flinch if tariff hostilities escalate to that point, according to Chinese news outlet Xinhua. "We will never sit idly by and watch while the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese people are infringed, nor will we sit idly by as international economic and trade rules and the multilateral trading system are undermined," said the spokesperson.