Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Friday to roll out 25 percent tariffs by the end of next month on smartphones made by Apple, Samsung Electronics Co., and other companies if they are not manufactured in the United States. Trump issued the threat hours after he warned in a social media post that if iPhones are not made in the U.S., a “tariff of at least 25 percent must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”

According to Yonhap News Agency, Trump stated, “It would be more. It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair,” during a press availability after signing executive orders at the White House. “That will start on, I guess, the end of June. It’ll come out. I think we have that appropriately done by the end of June,” he added.

The president was responding to a reporter’s question about why he would hurt Apple, an American company, with tariffs. He reiterated that companies manufacturing their product in the U.S. would not face tariffs. He also noted Apple’s move to shift production to India. “I said that’s okay to go to India, but you are not going to sell (them) here without tariffs,” he said. “That’s the way it is.”

Trump’s threat of new levies on imported smartphones added to concerns in South Korea over his administration’s series of new import taxes, which could impact bilateral economic and trade relations. South Korea and the U.S. have been engaged in talks over tariffs and other trade issues as Seoul has been striving to minimize the impact of the Trump administration’s reciprocal and other sectoral tariffs on Asia’s fourth-largest economy.