By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-03 15:06:18 | Updated at 2025-04-04 10:17:30
19 hours ago
Many US multinationals – long seen as shining symbols of globalisation, with their sprawling supply chains – are coming under rapidly mounting pressure as the US has slapped its trading partners around the globe with punitive tariffs.
That includes Apple, which has estimated that more than 90 per cent of its manufacturing is done in China, primarily for assembling and producing flagship products such as the iPhone and iPad.
If the world’s most valuable publicly traded company cannot secure an exemption this time around, and assuming Apple gets hit by the accumulative 54 per cent China tariffs and does not pass the added cost through, Citi analysts estimated in a research note on Thursday that it could result in a roughly 9 per cent negative impact on the company’s gross margin.
During the US-China trade war that started in 2018, Apple sought and obtained exemptions from certain tariffs on Chinese imports, including the Apple Watch and iPhone.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced an additional 34 per cent tariff on Chinese imports – building on the previous 20 per cent tariff that already took effect from early February – as part of his “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariff hikes affecting nearly 60 countries.
The effective tariffs on Chinese imports now amount to around 65 per cent, according to another research report from Citi.
