Sanders and Trump Agree, Apple Needs to Manufacture More Products in the U.S.
Back in January, GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump promised to make Apple manufacture their products in the U.S. if elected. Similar to many of Trump’s claims, however, he gave no detail as to how he plans to make good on the promise.
Before recent comments were made by Bernie Sanders, I would have said there’s probably nothing Trump and the Democratic presidential candidate agree on. However, after an interview with New York Daily News, it seems Trump has found an unlikely ally, at least on this subject. Sanders expressed to the Daily News his wishes Apple would manufacture more of their products in the U.S. and pay “their share of taxes”.
Sanders has garnered a lot of support through his promise to put a stop to corporate greed. His remarks regarding Apple were made in response to a question asking whether he thought Apple was one of the companies “destroying the fabric of America,” a phrase used multiple times by Sanders’ himself.
“No, Apple is not destroying the fabric of America. But I do wish they’d be manufacturing some of their devices, here, in the United States rather than in China. And I do wish that they would not be trying to avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” Sanders said. While Sanders’ comments weren’t quite as outlandish as Trump”s, it’s exceedingly clear both candidates want to see changes from Apple.
Apple currently outsources a vast majority of its manufacturing to China. The company certainly could make some changes, but as many American companies do, they outsource for a number of reasons. It’s no secret that America has one of highest corporate tax rates in the world, and until a change is made I don’t anticipate Apple, or any other major company, to shift their manufacturing structure. While taxes are undoubtedly a major factor in Apple’s decision to outsource, Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously claimed they outsource manufacturing because of skill. He explained in an December interview with Charlie Rose that China has put tremendous focus on training workers for manufacturing jobs, something the U.S. does not currently do. This is a chicken and egg problem and there are opposing opinions as to whether the U.S. stopped training workers because of the unavailability of manufacturing jobs or whether manufacturing jobs dried up due to an untrained workforce.
Either way, it’s important to remember Apple has made a push to bring more manufacturing jobs back to the United States. Currently, the tech giant uses Flextronics to assemble its Mac Pro in Austin, Texas, a move which cost the company a cool $100 million. Apple also uses many third party suppliers located in the U.S. to produce a number of other components used in Apple devices. Corning’s Gorilla Glass used in iPhones and iPads, for example, is made in Kentucky.
When it comes to taxes, Tim Cook has been adamant that Apple pays every penny the company owes, although Apple has been criticized for skirting taxes for years. Cook called the allegations “political crap” during the same December interview mentioned above.
In my opinion, both Trump and Sanders need to quit pestering Apple and realize there’s going to be no movement unless some change takes place from the political arena to make it easier for American companies to manufacture their products at home.
