Apple has already suggested it will move production out of the country, with between 15% and 30% of manufacturing likely to leave the country. Google’s preferred location away from Chine is unknown, but the company is said to be scouting locations for Google Home speaker production.
China Tariffs
It’s interesting that companies should be seeking to move away from China. If this is the case, it is unlikely to be related to any agreement with the tariffs imposed by the Trump government. However, companies may be concerned that China will become an expensive place to manufacture products. Just last week, the industry leading console companies penned an open letter criticizing the U.S. government’s tariffs. “The video game console supply chain has developed in China over many years of investment by our companies and our partners,” the companies wrote. “It would cause significant supply chain disruption to shift sourcing entirely to the United States or a third country, and it would increase costs—even beyond the cost of the proposed tariffs—on products that are already manufactured under tight margin conditions.”
