U.S. and China Reach Trade Deal Reducing Tariffs on Tech Products

Event: During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China, the U.S. and China reached an agreement to alter the Information Technology Agreement and drop tariffs on a wider range of tech products and devices.

In an effort to boost cooperation and the global economy, it will be hard to find enough negatives in this announcement to outweigh the positives. The WSJ has a very detailed breakdown of possible implications. In terms of Apple, I wouldn't expect a $100 price reduction across the Mac lineup next year due to this agreement, although there may very well be a $100 price reduction across the Mac lineup due to other reasons (economies of scale, improved engineering). The WSJ mentions the tariff reduction agreement may actually help prevent software piracy, impacting the iTunes store. This whole story got me thinking about Apple's experiment with the Mac Pro being manufactured in the U.S. I wonder how that has been trending. Surely Apple has been learning a lot from the endeavor.  

Two days ago someone asked me out of the blue, "Why doesn't Apple assemble iPhones in the U.S.?" I listed my laundry list of reasons.  At the end, this person said, "Oh please, that's nothing. It's Apple." I didn't have a response.  As global trade (and automation) become more efficient, my laundry list of reasons for why Apple doesn't assemble more things in the U.S. will shrink.