As Washington and Beijing continue to exchange tariff blows amid their ongoing trade war, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd, a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company which trades as Foxconn Technology Group, has revealed Apple has a backup plan to move its iPhone production from China to the United States if necessary, Bloomberg reports.
"Twenty-five per cent of our production capacity is outside of China, and we can help Apple respond to its needs in the US market", said Young Liu, the company’s adding that investments are now being made in India for Apple. "We have enough capacity to meet Apple's demand".
The trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies has continued to escalate as both sides have slapped tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of each other’s goods. Beijing has threatened to cut off its rare earth mineral supply to the US and reportedly stopped ordering US soybeans.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump announced that if Washington and Beijing fail to agree a trade deal, the United States will introduce fresh levies targeting $325 billion worth of Chinese products.
The US administration also recently blacklisted Chinese tech giant Huawei, accusing it of being sponsored by Beijing and spying on its behalf using its devices, thus effectively halting its ability to purchase American-made chips and forcing US firms to cut ties with the company.