Apple shifts production of Mac Pro from US to China: report

Apple has moved production of the Mac Pro, one of the few devices it manufactured in the U.S., to China amid the ongoing trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the plan, reported on Friday that Apple would be using the Quanta Computer Inc. as a contractor to carry out the manufacturing at a plant near Shanghai.

The $6,000 desktop computer had been manufactured in an Austin, Texas, plant since 2013, but has seen demand fade for the device in the years since.

{mosads}A spokesman for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill, but the company told the Journal that the new Mac Pro model is designed in the U.S. and some of its parts are manufactured here as well.

“Final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process,” the spokesman said.

Apple has been under increasing pressure from the Trump administration to expand its U.S. manufacturing and create more domestic jobs.

In 2017, Trump told the Journal that Apple CEO Tim Cook had promised to build three major factories, which the company did not confirm. Apple has not announced any new U.S. manufacturing centers in the years since.

“Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China — but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now,” the president tweeted last year.