Apple secures some tariff exemptions from US trade officials

Apple has secured nearly a dozen tariff exemptions from U.S. trade officials after President Trump declared earlier this summer that the company would not receive waivers for certain computer parts.

Reuters reported that U.S. trade regulators late this week approved 10 of 15 requests that Apple had filed for relief from tariffs, including requests for partially completed circuit boards and graphics cards.

The outlet noted that the exemptions could help Apple and other companies that make smaller gaming computers to produce their devices in the U.S.{mosads}

Trump has sought to put pressure on Apple and other companies to manufacture their products in the U.S., and the president in late July rejected Apple’s request to exempt Mac Pro parts from import tariffs.

“Apple will not be given Tariff waivers, or relief, for Mac Pro parts that are made in China,” Trump tweeted at the time. “Make them in the USA, no Tariffs!”

Apple had asked the U.S. trade representative’s office to exclude the parts from the list of products hit by tariffs as part of Trump’s escalating trade war with Beijing.

While the company’s Mac Pro has for years been manufactured in Texas, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this summer that it was moving production for its new $6,000 desktop computer to China.

The company’s CEO, Tim Cook, later said Apple wanted to manufacture its Mac Pro computers in the U.S. and suggested he was in talks with the administration on the matter.

“We’ve been making the Mac Pro in the U.S. We want to continue doing that,” he reportedly told analysts on a call in late July.