Will Apple CEO Tim Cook’s relationship with President Donald Trump be enough to protect the iPhone from China trade war?
- As trade war with China intensifies, Cook will likely have to lean on the president as conflict likely to hit the tech giant hard
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Steven Overly on politico.com on June 20, 2019.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s carefully cultivated relationship with US President Donald Trump faces a high-stakes test as his company hustles to protect its moneymaking iPhone from the administration’s trade war with China.
Cook has been the most effective weapon in Apple's lobbying arsenal as it navigates Trump’s policies on issues like taxes and trade, meeting with the president and his family members as recently as last week.
That is in contrast to the reluctance of many other tech executives to engage with Trump – and it has won praise from the president himself, who thanked “Tim Apple” in March as “a friend of mine” who has “brought a lot of money back into our country”.
That bond could prove critical to the company as it seeks to exempt its iPhone and other products, including tablets and computers, from Trump's latest round of proposed tariffs on US$300 billion worth of Chinese-made goods. Apple formally asked the Office of the US Trade Representative, in a filing made public on Thursday, to strike its products off the list.
