Apple’s main manufacturing partner said it can shift the production if the trade war between the U.S. and China escalates. Apple hasn’t asked the company to do so yet, but a 25 per cent tariff on phones and laptops imported from China to the U.S. are set to come into effect at the end of June. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: Twenty-five per cent of Foxconn’s production capacity is already outside China, and the company is investing more in India, which already produces several older iPhone models. Foxconn’s willingness to back Apple in a trade war is the latest sign that tech giants will work with the U.S. if China and the U.S. begin shutting down each other’s firms’ ability to work in their respective countries. Also on Monday, Japan’s Tokyo Electron, a semiconductor giant, said it would not supply Chinese clients blacklisted by Washington. However, just because it would be possible for Apple to shift production outside China doesn’t mean it would be easy—or cheap. Half the world’s iPhones are made at a single factory complex in Zhengzhou, which employs about 350,000 people.