Apple CEO Tim Cook, left, and President Donald Trump speak to the press during a tour of the Flextronics computer manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, where Apple's Mac Pros are assembled, Nov. 20, 2019.Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Tim Cook to join Trump at White House for Apple investment announcement

by · CNBC

Key Points

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook will join President Donald Trump for an event touting what the White House calls a new $100 billion investment commitment by the tech giant in the U.S.
  • The announcement in the Oval Office, set for 4:30 p.m. ET, includes Apple's commitment to a new "American Manufacturing Program," a White House official confirmed to CNBC.
  • The meeting comes as Trump has pushed Apple to make its products in America, which experts say would jack up iPhone prices by hundreds of dollars.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook will join President Donald Trump on Wednesday for an event touting what the White House calls a new $100 billion investment commitment by the tech giant in the U.S.

The announcement in the Oval Office, set for 4:30 p.m. ET, includes Apple's commitment to a new "American Manufacturing Program," a White House official confirmed to CNBC.

With the new pledge, Apple's total investment in the U.S. over the next four years now totals $600 billion, the official said.

Bloomberg first reported Apple's new investment pledge earlier Wednesday.

The meeting comes as Trump has pushed Apple to make its products in America — a feat that experts say would jack up prices by hundreds of dollars, if it can even be done at all.

Most of Apple's flagship iPhones have been manufactured in China, though the company is moving some of its production to India.

Trump has complained about that plan. "We're not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves ... we want you to build here," Trump said he told Cook in May.

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On Wednesday, Trump announced he will double the U.S. tariff rate on Indian goods to 50%. Trump said he was raising the tariff because of India continuing to purchase Russian oil.

Trump had exempted smartphones, chips and other tech products from his early April "reciprocal" tariff plan, which slapped a 10% baseline duty on nearly the entire world and set significantly higher rates for dozens of individual countries.

That exemption still applied as of this week, following Trump's executive order tweaking U.S. tariffs on a slew of countries.

And it appears to remain intact in Trump's latest order ratcheting up tariffs on imports from India.

Apple declined CNBC's request for comment.

— CNBC's Steve Kovach contributed to this report.

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