Tech

Trump Gives Apple Exemption From Tariffs, NYT Reports

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Kyle Perisic Contributor
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President Trump reportedly told Apple CEO Tim Cook that Apple will be excluded from the tariffs the Trump administration placed on China.

Cook met with Trump at the White House in May to talk about how tariffs could hurt U.S. consumers, The New York Times reported Monday. Cook allegedly played the role of ambassador at a meeting in Beijing with Trump and President Xi Jinping in March, calling for “calmer heads” in the trade negotiations.

Trump reportedly assured Cook that he would leave the company out of the tariffs. The list of tariffs Trump placed on China excluded many consumer electronics, boosting fears that it could damage the U.S. technology sector.

Trump threatened to hit China with another $200 billion in tariffs on Monday, escalating the ongoing trade war between the two nations. The tariffs the administration threatened to hit China with would be on top of the “25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of goods from China that contain industrially significant technologies” that the Trump administration placed on China last Friday for years of intellectual property theft and and unfair trade policies.

Chinese companies, with the support of their government, have been accused of bypassing the typical research and development that other businesses conduct by stealing other countries’ ideas and making it illegal to sell most of their products in China, giving them an unfair advantage in most trade deals. (RELATED: Trump Threatens To Hit China With Tariffs On $200 Billion Worth Of Goods)

Intel, the tech world’s most profitable chip maker and a large U.S. manufacturer, has reportedly also found a way around the tariffs as well by shifting production around its facilities, Reuters reported Monday.

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