A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The U.S. government has so far paid out more than 80 billion in tariff refunds since the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs earlier this year. One company with a big refund is Apple, and as NPR’s John Ruwitch reports, it’s planning to do something with that money that a lot of smaller companies can’t.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Apple says the tariff refund added about two percentage points to its gross margin. But how much is that? We did some math, and it’s about $2.2 billion. Apple declined to comment, but on an earnings call last week, CEO Tim Cook was explicit about what Apple will do with the money.
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TIM COOK: Last year, we made a $600 billion commitment to the U.S. over four years, and now, as we said before, we plan to reinvest the tariff refunds we’ve received into the U.S.
RUWITCH: The company is trying to shift its supply chains to the States. Dan Anthony tracks refunds at a small business group called We Pay the Tariffs that’s critical of the import taxes. He says a recent survey his group did shows that, unlike Apple, many businesses are using their refunds just to stay afloat.
DAN ANTHONY: The biggest two things that got flagged were paying down debt – so essentially trying to get out of the hole they got themselves into to keep making tariff payments – and rebuilding inventory.
RUWITCH: He says nearly half of the 241 businesses surveyed said they had increased lines of credit or took fresh debt to survive the tariffs. Many cut costs by laying staff off. He says the government is due to update the amount it’s refunded so far, but the Trump administration launched fresh tariffs in July, complicating the outlook for businesses.
ANTHONY: There is a reluctance to invest in U.S. manufacturing or really anywhere because they just don’t know when are these things going to change again.
RUWITCH: For now, he says even with refunds, many companies are staying in a defensive crouch.
John Ruwitch, NPR News.
MARTÍNEZ: And a note – Apple is a financial supporter of NPR.
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