Turkey targets iPhone after Trump doubles tariffs

Once more on the front lines of the President’s trade war.

From Erdogan calls for Turkish boycott of U.S.-made electronics, singling out Apple’s iPhone, posted Tuesday by the Washington Post:

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would boycott U.S.-made electronic products, escalating a feud with the Trump administration that has contributed to the rapid decline of the Turkish currency.

The currency, the lira, tumbled against the dollar last week when President Trump said he was doubling tariffs on imported Turkish metals to punish Erdogan for refusing to free an American pastor currently on trial in Turkey. The argument over the pastor, Andrew Brunson, has sparked the worst crisis between the NATO allies in decades and led to fears that Turkey’s economic problems could cause a new global financial crisis.

“We are going to apply a boycott on America’s electronic products,” Erdogan said Tuesday during a televised speech, adding that there were alternatives, produced by South Korean or Turkish companies. He did not say when the boycott would start or how it would be enforced.

“If they have the iPhone, there is Samsung on the other side,” he said, referring to the phone by Apple that became closely associated with Erdogan himself two years ago when he used the phone’s FaceTime feature to rally citizens during a failed coup attempt.

My take: When Trump threatens trading partners, Apple gets targeted. There’s probably a banana republic/Apple republic analogy to be made, but I can’t make it work.