Apple said on Monday that it will continue to produce its Mac Pro computer at its facility in Austin, Texas, following reports which indicated it was considering shifting production to China.
The company said it's able to produce its new Mac Pro in the United States because it received a federal product exclusion for the device's parts and components. Bloomberg previously reported in July that Apple was seeking exclusions on Mac Pro components.
Apple also says that the value of American-made components in its new redesigned Mac Pro, which in unveiled during its Worldwide Developers Conference back in June, is 2.5 times greater than in Apple's previous-generation Mac Pro. The Mac Pro has been the company's only major product to be assembled in the US, as it largely relies on its China-based facilities for most production.
Apple's announcement that it will produce the 2019 Mac Pro at the same Texas facility that it used to manufacture the 2013 Mac Pro comes after The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported the company was considering shifting production to China. Those reports indicated Apple intended to work with Taiwanese contractor Quanta Computer to manufacture it's newest high-end desktop machine.
But Apple CEO Tim Cook said on the company's earnings call in July that it wanted to continue making the Mac Pro in the US. "In terms of exclusions, we've been making the Mac Pro in the US, we want to continue to do that," Cook said at the time. "So we're working and investing currently in capacity to do so. Because we want to continue to be here."
The decision to continue manufacturing the Mac Pro in Texas comes amid an ongoing trade war between the United States and China. The Trump administration's 15% tariff on Chinese imports went into effect on September 1, impacting Apple products such as AirPods, the Apple Watch, and the HomePod. The iPhone isn't expected to be affected until December.
President Trump initially indicated that he would not be providing exclusions to Apple for its Mac Pro in a tweet from July 26. But more recently, in late August, President Trump said that Cook "made a good case" about how the tariffs could hurt Apple and provide an advantage to its main competitor, Samsung. "I got to help him out short term with that problem," Trump said to reporters in late August as seen in a video by Fox Business. "Because it's a great American company."
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