Most of you have probably seen President Trumps tweet ordering American companies to move production out of China. He can’t actually do that but he can increase tariffs and change trade policies to the point to cause that to happen eventually. But in case you missed them:
In a Washington Post article on the subject, it appears even if Apple wanted to move iPhone production out of China it would take them five years or better. And guess who is responsible for Apple’s embedded status in China? Terry Gou…the very same Terry Gou who owns Foxconn. The very same Terry Gou who hoodwinked President Trump and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker with promises of 13,000 jobs in Racine County. And when things started to sound doubtful, the very same Terry Gou who reaffirmed his commitment to Wisconsin, albeit on a smaller scale, after talking with President Trump.
So howse about if the president hereby orders Terry Gou to move Apple iPhone production to the Foxconn campus in Racine County?
Over decades Apple has become intertwined with China’s electronics assembly infrastructure to a degree that is extremely difficult to undo. In a best-case scenario, it would take Apple five years to move just half of its iPhone production out of China, Ives ( Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities) said.
In many ways, Apple’s rise from an also ran in the market for personal computers to one of the most valuable companies on the planet is due to its partnership with Foxconn, a Taiwanese juggernaut that manufactures in China.
Apple may have come up with the ideas for its consumer products, but Foxconn founder Terry Gou made them a reality starting in the early 2000s by leveraging China’s manufacturing prowess to build sleek devices at such low cost that they were also profitable.
Apple has toyed with assembling products outside China in the past, building comparatively small numbers of desktop computers in the United States and exploring iPhone manufacturing in India and Southeast Asia, but the company remains highly dependent on China.
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