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Tim Cook meets with China’s minister of commerce to discuss the supply chain, regulations, and more

Apple CEO

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China’s trade minister Wang Wentao on Monday as part of his visit there this week. After attending the government-sponsored China Development Forum on Saturday, which highlighted supply chain, innovation, and other topics, Cook attended this meeting.

Reuters reported that Cook and Wentao met to talk about Apple’s ongoing “progress in China.” According to reports, the two parties focused on “stabilizing industrial and supply chains” in the country. A good atmosphere and services for foreign companies, including Apple, are something that China is aiming to provide, Wentao reportedly stressed to Cook.

According to a statement from the Chinese government, “China will steadfastly support high-level opening-up, steadily advance rules, laws, management, standards, and other institutional opening-up.” The development of Apple in China and the stabilization of the supply and industrial chains were two topics on which the two sides “exchanged opinions.”

After attending the China Development Forum on Saturday, Cook met with Wentao. Cook hailed Apple’s “symbiotic” connection with China during a panel discussion at the event. He praised the company’s extensive “supply chain operation” in China. He avoided discussing the hostilities between the US and China and instead stated that “innovation in China is developing rapidly.”

Apple is aggressively looking for methods to lessen its dependency on China for manufacturing. One such strategy includes making significant investments in brand-new manufacturing facilities in India alongside its partner Foxconn.

For the past few years, China’s strict COVID-19 regulations have had a huge negative impact on Apple, along with many other companies. Most notably, the iPhone 14 Pro was entirely out of stock for the majority of the last year’s holiday shopping season. The corporation is estimated to have lost at least $6 billion as a result of these shortages. It caused an unusual drop in iPhone sales year over year.