It’s being reported today by Bloomberg that the U.S. President said that he asked Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook to stop building plants in India, taking aim at the iPhone maker’s plans to diversify its manufacturing beyond China. That’s tantamount to a veiled warning.

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said of his conversation with the Apple chief executive officer in Qatar, where he’s on a state visit. “He is building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.” As a result of their discussion, Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States” [whatever that means].

We ‘re not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves," the US President said.

India has one of the highest tariff barriers in the world and it’s very hard to sell American products in the planet’s most populous country, Trump said. He said, though, that India has made an offer to drop tariffs on US goods, as the Asian nation seeks an agreement on import taxes.

The US president’s remarks disrupt Apple’s plan to source the majority of its US iPhone supply from India by the end of next year, a move aimed at reducing dependence on China amid tariff and geopolitical concerns.

Apple assembled $22 billion worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months through March, increasing production by nearly 60% over the previous year.  Bloomberg

Whether Trump used his conversation with Cook to the press as a means of pressuring India into a new trade deal is unknown, but the BBC is now reporting that Trump has now stated at an event in Doha that the Indian government has "offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff." The Indian government has yet to confirm this.  

The report clarified his statement to Tim Cook: “we are treating you really good, we put up with all the plants you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves'."

The report added that "As Trump always blamed India's high tariffs for the trade deficit, India could offer to make 90% of US exports tariff-free from day one, using a "zero-for-zero" approach - cutting tariffs on all goods except autos and agriculture. Though the deal must ensure strict reciprocity, with both sides eliminating tariffs equally," says Ajay Srivastava, a Delhi-based trade expert.