Trump Announces Punishing Tariffs on India That Could Drive Up Smartphone Prices

Your next iPhone or other smartphone could cost more soon. President Trump says he is going to put a 25 percent tariff on India “plus a penalty” in retaliation for the country buying military equipment and oil from Russia.India is now the leading manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the United States, surpassing China. The growth is largely driven by Apple’s accelerated supply chain shift to India, according to research firm Canalys.“Apple has scaled up its production capacity in India over the last several years as a part of its ‘China Plus One’ strategy and has opted to dedicate most of its export capacity in India to supply the U.S. market so far in 2025,” a principal analyst at Canalys, Sanyam Chaurasia, says.Apple is set to announce its latest earnings report on Thursday and will indicate how current tariffs are affecting profits. Its stock was trading slightly lower on Wednesday morning.Mr. Trump announced in a Truth Social post that the new tariffs on India would begin on August 1 and stated that India’s tariffs are “among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country.”In a follow-up post, Mr. Trump said the United States has a “massive” trade deficit with India. The trade deficit through the first five months of 2025 was nearly $29 billion, according to Census Bureau data.Mr. Trump announced a 26 percent import tax on Indian goods in April but suspended their implementation to give the country time to negotiate a trade deal. There has yet to be any framework that the two countries can agree on together.The United States imported more than $87 billion in goods from India last year, suggesting that the new tariffs could cost American consumers more than $20 billion annually if they are actually implemented.America’s top 10 imports from India included precious stones, metals, electrical machinery, pharmaceuticals, and clothing, according to United States import data. India’s top imports from America are oil and gas, manufactured goods, coal, and planes.India is the world’s most populous country and the world’s fifth-largest economy, according to the Congressional Research Service.In a February joint statement, Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Modi said they would seek to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 and negotiate a multi-sector trade agreement.The tariff threat on India comes as the United States and China have agreed to continue talks to avoid a possible trade war. New trade deals have also been announced with the European Union, Japan, and other countries ahead of an August 1 deadline to avoid higher tariffs, though details on the substance of those deals remain sketchy.

Trump Announces Punishing Tariffs on India That Could Drive Up Smartphone Prices

Trump Announces Punishing Tariffs on India That Could Drive Up Smartphone Prices

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