[ulfw]

This is so against globalisation and global trade it‘s not even funny. Totally cool if Apple did this voluntarily, but the only reason they‘re doing it is to prevent high import taxes.

India is a huge market. So it‘s all good. Brazil is a good deal smaller and requires the same thing. So does Argentina (and is even smaller). Now imagine every country would do this.

[Alterlife]

In some ways, every third-world country in the world SHOULD do this. I say this as an Indian iPhone user.

iPhones are a luxury product. A tax on imported high end electronics is a tax on the well-off. Not only that, it's the best kind - a tax that an end-user can choose whether or not they want to pay.

[dis-sys]

> A tax on imported high end electronics is a tax on the well-off.

According to the latest market research [1] in China, IPhone are mostly used in China by undereducated people with relatively low income, people with decent education & job mostly use Android phones.

This is consistent with what I see on daily basis - almost all my friends & coworkers use MacBook Pro + Huawei/Xiaomi phone. If I try really really hard, I can probably eventually list 1-2 friends & coworkers who use iPhone, but like I said, I need to try hard to recall that.

[1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlight...

[tonyedgecombe]

In most ways they shouldn't, poorer countries have been doing rather well out of globalisation. If trade wars started all over the world they would suffer the most.

[sumedh]

> poorer countries have been doing rather well out of globalisation.

Rich countries as well, lot of pharma drugs sold in the US come from India.

[sudhirj]

For non-essential products, yes, I think most developing countries should impose an import tax on non-essential luxuries. In India same rules apply to imported cars as well - which has massively helped local industry because Mercedes, BMW, Audi all have factories here. There's no reason for Apple to get special treatment.

[manojlds]

India makes medicine cheap and iPhones costly. And you are complaining?

[Theodores]

> India is a huge market.

There was a time when the British destroyed the textiles trade in India and made everyone buy stuff made in Manchester. Before that India had 25% or so of the global market.

With a billion or so people living in the sub-continent there should be an indigenous mobile phone and eco-system that suits the market better than what Silicon Valley can provide. China can do it, Europe used to be able to do it. It is not as if India is short of highly educated software engineers. If, instead of everyone in India having an Indian mobile phone, everyone has an iPhone then everyone is going to be sending off a portion of their wealth off to Cupertino (even if that money ends up in off shore tax havens).

There are national security issues with this, regardless of how well Apple claim they are on the side of privacy. Just for sovereignty reasons the Indian government should be using heir own tech instead of providing incentives for Apple to set up shop.

[kmlx]

what's up with so much nationalism coming from India?

why would it matter where you're sending a portion of your so-called "wealth" when you're getting something in return?

considering the horrific state India is in (high corruption, high poverty, low healthcare, no infrastructure, you name it), the location of where an iPhone is produced should literally be the last thing the government cares about.

maybe the value of the potential taxes are too much for the government not to stick their hands in?

[DJN]

It’s because where the money goes is where it circulates, which ultimately affects the GDP.

Every dollar that leaves India, Nigeria or any other developing country is one less dollar that can pay for jobs (plumbers, electricians, doctors etc) in the local market.

South Africa used to have very restrictive currency export controls partly due to apartheid-era sanctions, and one consequence is that it stimulated domestic production and innovation, perhaps far more than any other African country. They’ve now relaxed those controls but it is arguable that they were necessary at that stage of their economic development.

[claudiawerner]

>why would it matter where you're sending a portion of your so-called "wealth" when you're getting something in return?

Perhaps the "wealth" you're sending and what you're getting back are qualitatively different and you have reason to prefer one over the other. Or even more simply, perhaps what you're getting in return isn't worth more than what you're giving. As an aside, in the philosophy of exploitation, it is entirely possible for exploitation to exist even if both the exploiter and the exploited benefit in some way in the transaction.

[sumedh]

> considering the horrific state India is in (high corruption, high poverty, low healthcare, no infrastructure, you name it),

You missed jobs in that statement, Iphone factory brings jobs directly and indirectly in that region. Try looking at the big picture.

[Theodores]

In the automotive sector India has its own successful manufacturers.

Tata now owns a whole slew of British auto companies in Jaguar/Land Rover. So, despite these horror stories of corruption, someone in the Indian auto sector is doing something right.

I don't see why, given the market size, that India can't have its own full stack of mobile phone tech, operating systems, apps and everything else. Why settle for crumbs from the Apple table? Why settle for a few jobs for the profits to go back to Cupertino? The Tata Steel example is proof that dreams don't have to be downsized and that countries have to be beholden to American corporations.

[sumedh]

> Why settle for a few jobs for the profits to go back to Cupertino?

You may have the luxury to say that, lot of Indians dont. They need that job.

[dalbasal]

Globalization is a big word.

At least in the context of the last few generations, this is not an unusual avenue to globalization. It's pretty much the template followed by auto manufacturing as it globalised, for example.

[andy_ppp]

Even America wants some of the high end manufacturing jobs back...