Apple has reacted to the chaos and confusion created by US President Donald Trump, that had caused stock markets worldwide to plummet, and prompted fears of a global recession.
Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported that Apple had chartered cargo flights to ferry 600 tons of iPhones, or as many as 1.5 million, to the United States from India.
The economic chaos caused by Trump had already badly impacted Apple’s stock price, allowing Microsoft to briefly to overtake Apple (again) as the most valuable public company in the world.
Tariff chaos
Last week US President Donald Trump had announced America’s so called “Liberation Day” with sweeping tariffs.
Trump’s tariffs announced last week were 10 percent for a few selected nations (including the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore).
However Trump’s tariffs were much higher for 60 so called “worst offenders” which includes China, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Africa, and even US allies such as the European Union, Japan and Taiwan.
Trump’s latest round of tariffs went into effect on Wednesday 9 April 2025, and markets around the world plummeted even further, with the Bank of England warning that the risk of “further sharp corrections” in the market was high, and that Donald Trump’s tariff war could UK financial stability at risk.
After days of market turmoil, Trump backed down and posted on Truth Social a 90-day pause for countries hit by higher US tariffs but he escalated the trade war with China.
Trump said he was authorising a universal “lowered reciprocal tariff of 10 percent” as negotiations continued.
But at the same time Trump increased tariffs on goods from China to 125 percent “effectively immediately”, after Beijing had retaliated imposing tariffs of 84 percent on US imports after Trump had ramped up import duty on Chinese goods to 104 percent.
After China’s retaliation, Trump has now raised China’s tariffs to 125 percent, but markets have surged with the news of Trump’s 90-day pause on the other tariffs.
Airlifting iPhones
Into this chaos comes the Reuters report that Apple chartered cargo flights to ferry 600 tons of iPhones, or as many as 1.5 million, to the United States from India, after it stepped up production there in an effort to beat President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
It comes after analysts have suggested that US prices of iPhones could surge, given Apple’s high reliance on imports from China, the main manufacturing hub of the devices, which is subject to Trump’s highest tariff rate of 125 percent.
Trump had set a lower 26 percent tariff on Indian imports, which is now on the 90 day pause.
Other media reports have suggested that the cost of an iPhone could triple in price to $3,500, if the handset were made in America, instead of China and India.
It should be noted that the relevant tariffs are usually applied when a product is loaded into an aeroplane or ship for shipping, and not when it lands at its destination.
One of the sources told Reuters that Apple “wanted to beat the tariff,” which is why Apple reportedly lobbied Indian airport authorities to cut to six hours the time needed to clear customs at the Chennai airport in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, down from 30 hours.
The so-called “green corridor” arrangement at the airport in the Indian manufacturing hub emulated a model Apple uses at some airports in China, the source told Reuters.
Reuters reported that about six cargo jets with a capacity of 100 tons each have flown out since March, one of them this week just as new tariffs kicked in, the source and an Indian government official said.
The packaged weight of an iPhone 14 and its charging cable come to about 350 grams (12.35 oz), Reuters measurements show, implying the total cargo of 600 tons comprised about 1.5 million iPhones, after accounting for some packaging weight.
Apple sells more than 220 million iPhones a year worldwide, with Counterpoint Research estimating a fifth of total iPhone imports to the United States now come from India, and the rest from China, Reuters reported.
