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Trump says he is having dinner Friday with Apple CEO Cook

August 16, 2019 at 08:01 pm EDT

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he was having dinner on Friday with Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook of Apple Inc, a company the president has criticized for not manufacturing more of its products in the United States.

"Having dinner tonight with Tim Cook of Apple. They will be spending vast sums of money in the U.S. Great!" Trump, who is on a working vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, said in a Twitter message.

The White House did not immediately respond to a question about the agenda for the dinner and what Trump was referring to when he said Apple would be spending vast sums in the United States.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has said he wants Apple and other manufactures to move their production from China and other countries to the United States.

Another round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports had been due to take effect in Sept. 1, but the Trump administration this week delayed the tariffs on some products until Dec. 15.

"We're doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers," Trump said on Tuesday after the announcement.

Levies on Apple's MacBooks and iPhones were delayed until December, while tariffs on its AirPods, Apple Watch and HomePod will go into effect as scheduled next month.

The United States and China are locked in a trade war over U.S. demands that China change its policies on intellectual property protection, technology transfers, industrial subsidies and other trade barriers.

Trump said on Thursday that U.S. and Chinese negotiators were holding "productive" trade talks and expected them to meet in September.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Beech; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Tim Cook

Timothy D. Cook is, since the resignation of Steve Jobs August 24, 2011, the CEO of Apple Inc.

Tim Cook grew up in Alabama. His father worked in a shipyard and his mother was a housewife. Graduated in 1982 from Auburn University in Alabama in industrial engineering, he obtained his MBA in 1988 at Duke University in North Carolina, one of the most prestigious American universities.

Tim Cook has worked for 12 years at IBM, where he supervised the production and distribution in North America and Latin America. Then, he joined Compaq and became vice president in charge of the production, the procurement and the inventory management.

Steve Jobs poached himself Tim Cook at Compaq in 1997. Tim Cook joined Apple in March 1998, a year after the return of Steve Jobs at the helm. Under the authority of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook is responsible of the supply chain managing: sales, support, customer services. He works for all markets where the company is present.
Tim Cook puts in place a strategy: the company must reduce its products range and the number of distributors and resellers. Another strategy initiated by Tim Cook: subcontracting in Asia. Tim Cook is the man of the relocation in the company.

In 2000, Tim Cook became director of international sales, and in 2004 he took head of the Macintosh division, which is responsible of MacBook, MacBook Pro and iMac.
Since that day, Mac sales are constantly raising. Tim Cook knows how to sell. These excellent results allow him to evolve in the company. In 2007 Tim Cook became Chief Operating Officer of the company.

In 2004, when Steve Jobs was convalescing after a surgery against a pancreatic cancer, Tim Cook replaced him for two years. In 2009, Steve Jobs takes leave for a liver transplant; Tim Cook is CEO during several months. In January 2011, even if he is on the sick list, Steve Jobs is always CEO but Tim Cook is at the helm of the company daily.

Tim Cook is a brilliant man and very intelligent. Less impulsive than his predecessor, he can seem emotionally detached and implacable. This is a quiet man who does very few public appearances.

Tim Cook is on the Board of Directors of Nike, where he took lessons in marketing in contact with Phil Knight, the founder of Nike.

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