Apple has chartered cargo flights to ship 600 tons of iPhones from India to the United States in an attempt to circumvent US President Donald Trump's tariffs, Reuters reported, citing its sources.
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Details of the initiative offer insight into the U.S. smartphone maker's internal strategy to circumvent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and stockpile popular iPhones in the U.S., one of its largest markets.
Analysts have warned that iPhone prices in the US could rise sharply given Apple's heavy reliance on imports from China, the company's main manufacturing hub that is subject to Trump's steep 125% tariff.
That figure is significantly higher than the 26% tariff on imports from India that was suspended after Trump announced a 90-day pause that does not include China.
“Apple wanted to get around the tariffs,” said one source familiar with the company's plans.
Apple spent about eight months planning and arranging fast-track clearance for its goods at Chennai airport in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has asked officials to support Apple.
The so-called “green corridor” scheme at the Indian manufacturing hub's airport is copied from a model Apple uses at some airports in China.
It is noted that about six cargo planes with a capacity of 100 tons each have departed from India since March, one of them this week, just before the new duties came into force.
The packaged weight of the iPhone 14 and its charging cable is about 350g, meaning the total shipment of 600 tons included about 1.5 million iPhones, including the packaging weight.
Apple sells more than 220 million iPhones a year worldwide, and Counterpoint Research estimates that a fifth of total iPhone imports into the United States now come from India, with the rest coming from China.
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