Apple's plans to increasingly shift its manufacturing base to India will stay intact, according to government sources, even as US President Donald Trump said he asked Tim Cook not to open more factories in the country.
Government sources indicated that Apple's manufacturing plans would continue on the growth path since India became a significant player in smartphone production.
If companies recognise the value of manufacturing in India, they will continue on that path. Any company like Apple will see its own competitiveness and their investment decisions will be based on their own costs, one of the sources said.
The statement of intent comes hours after Trump said he had a "little problem" with Cook over manufacturing in India.
"I said to him, Tim you're my friend, you're coming in with $500 billion but building all over India, I don't want you to build all over India," he said, while speaking to the media after a meeting with business leaders in Doha.
"You can build in India if you want to take care of India, (but) India is one of the highest tariffed nations in the world, it's very hard to sell into India. They've offered us a deal where basically they're literally willing to charge us no tariff, so we go from the highest tariff.
"You couldn't even do business in India because the tariff is so high. We're not even the top 30 in India, to the lowest. They've said there won't be any tariffs now," Trump said.
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