New tariffs on China would make some Apple products more expensive.
That's what the company told US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a letter dated Wednesday, a last-ditch appeal to avoid additional tariffs on Chinese goods worth $200 billion that could go into effect as soon as Friday.
"Because all tariffs ultimately show up as a tax on US consumers, they will increase the cost of Apple products that our customers have come to rely on in their daily lives," the company said.
In addition to its Apple Watch and its wireless Air Pods, Apple (AAPL) said tariffs would affect the Apple Pencil, HomePod and MacMini, along with adapters, cables and chargers. It did not mention the iPhone.
"Our concern with these tariffs is that the US will be hardest hit, and that will result in lower US growth and competitiveness and higher prices for US consumers," the company said.
Trump said Friday that tariffs on China worth $200 billion would "will take place very soon depending on what happens." He added that he's ready to place yet another round of tariffs on $267 billion in Chinese goods after that — bringing the total imports from China subject to tariffs to more than $500 billion. The US imported $505 billion in goods from China last year.
The Trump administration has already imposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, intended to punish Beijing for alleged unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft.
Other tech companies have expressed concern, too.
Dell (DVMT), Cisco (CSCO), Juniper Networks (JNPR) and Hewlett Packard (HPE) said the tariffs would increase the costs of their networking equipment, damaging the companies' bottom lines and leading to possible US job losses.
Apple also mentioned that tariffs would raise the cost of servers, hard drives and cables for US data centers.
-- Donna Borak contributed to this report.
