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Apple will just claim its suppliers fault. That is why companies outsource everything. That way there is plausible deniability.

• judge2020 6y ago
  It's the issue with using China manufacturing at all, although, even if Apple moved production to the US, chances are they'd still be facing forced labor allegations since they'd still need to get shipments from China for parts that can't be made in the US.
  • hobs 6y ago
    And then they'd actually have a foot to stand on in terms of defending their position.
    • judge2020 6y ago
      I don't think so. Even if you just get shipments for the rare earth materials that aren't present in first-world American countries, Apple would need to do the same supply chain audits all the way from shipment to mining, and they'd still be accused of using slave labor since apparently these audits don't work and using China at all introduces slave labor into your supply chain. For now it still makes sense to do last-leg manufacturing in China since moving to the US has no benefits from a PR standpoint (due to the reasons above) and has huge negatives with needing to import the raw materials instead of just shipping the final product from China -> Alaska -> Continental US customers.
      • sthnblllII 6y ago
        >no benefits from a PR standpoint Maybe not in your circles, but Americans are sick of everything being made in China and Apple could afford to do it here if there were public pressure for them to do so.