In a bid to avoid tariffs as high as 25 percent, Google is reportedly moving the production of US-bound Nest devices and server hardware outside China. Tech companies like Google and Apple are having to make a call on this as the trade war between the United States and China has consequences for their businesses.
It’s unclear if Apple is going to order Foxconn, its manufacturing partner, to move US-bound iPhone production outside China. Foxconn has already said that it does have the capacity to do this outside China.
Bloomberg reports that in order to avoid the import tariffs on products manufactured in China, Google is going to move the production of Nest devices and server hardware destined for the US out of China. Production of the motherboards meant for Google’s data centers in the US has been shifted to Taiwan while the Nest devices are being produced in Taiwan and Malaysia.
Companies have the option of either absorbing the tariffs themselves entirely or passing all or some of the cost down to consumers. That would result in prices being raised and thus the products becoming less competitive in the market. Other companies are having to take similar steps. GoPro, for example, is moving production for US-bound products to Mexico.