MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Europe is retaliating against American tariffs on steel and aluminum. The EU said this morning it will have tariffs of its own April 1. India is closely watching the trade war, especially as manufacturing gets more expensive for China. NPR's Diaa Hadid reports.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: An advertisement shows a woman watching a cricket match on her Apple iPhone in a yellow-and-black auto-rickshaw that bounces on jutted roads.
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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: And he's got it.
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HADID: You really can't get more Indian than that. And in some ways, it reflects India's hopes of expanding Apple's presence here. Around 15% of all iPhones are assembled in India and officials hope to double that within a few years. Apple started manufacturing here in 2017. It was big news.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Apple has started manufacturing its flagship device in India.
HADID: That move was largely seen as a way to loosen Apple's reliance on China, where most of the company's products are made.
ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN: It created opportunities for India to take advantage of that - to get some investment here.
HADID: Arvind Subramanian is a former economic adviser to the Indian government. He says Prime Minister Narendra Modi seized on the opportunity to encourage businesses to shift their manufacturing to China. Now, with Trump in power again, India hopes to profit by luring more manufacturing to its shores. One of those places is Subramanian's home state, Tamil Nadu.
SUBRAMANIAN: Tamil Nadu has been better at exporting than other states.
HADID: It's nestled in India's southern tip - has a distinct culture, language, music.
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KAILASH KHER: (Singing in Tamil).
HADID: It's India's manufacturing powerhouse. It makes cars, clothes, solar panels, sneakers for Nike, Puma, Adidas.
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UNIDENTIFIED BACKING SINGERS: (Singing in Tamil).
HADID: Consider this - nearly half of all Indian women who work in factories work in Tamil Nadu. So it's no surprise that the state has already benefited from businesses seeking to shift from China.
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HADID: And a lot of those businesses are around the industrial town of Sriperumbudur - like Foxconn, which assembles Apple iPhones.
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HADID: It's a busy place. Music blares from the shops.
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HADID: Labor agencies dot the main road. On the stairwell of one agency, we meet Keerthana. She's only got one name. She is 21 - thick braid over her shoulder, duffel bag at her feet.
KEERTHANA: (Speaking Tamil).
HADID: She came into town on the overnight bus to find work at Foxconn and got a job there right away through the employment agency.
That was very fast, huh?
Keerthana isn't sure what job she'll do at Foxconn.
KEERTHANA: (Speaking Tamil).
HADID: But she'll make $170 a month - double what she was making at a clothes factory. Subramanian, the former economic adviser, says while those wages are low in the West, it's life-changing for women like Keerthana. And for that...
SUBRAMANIAN: I am unambiguously in favor of manufacturing because you get many, many more women, especially, getting jobs.
HADID: But there's a key obstacle to Tamil Nadu - and to India - attracting more manufacturing from China.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I was saved by God to make America great again.
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HADID: In early March, Trump imposed more tariffs on products coming in from China. That was expected, but he's also singled out India for its high tariffs. And in his State of the Union address, Trump vowed that on 2 April...
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TRUMP: Reciprocal tariffs kick in.
HADID: Reciprocal tariffs against India. The announcement came despite a last-minute dash by India's trade minister to Washington to try and negotiate carve-outs, because if those tariffs come into force, they'll be a blow to India's hopes of attracting more manufacturing. And it will make it more expensive to export goods to the U.S., which is India's biggest market, at a time when the Indian economy is flagging and needs a hand up - not a punch down.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Sriperumbudur. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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