Tim Cook says he's not too worried about China tariffs on iPhones

Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company's products have managed to escape from President Donald Trump's escalating trade with China, and he is optimistic that it will stay that way.

% tariff on US goods in retaliation for Trump's plan to increase tariffs on goods imported from China. Analysts forecast the cost of iPhones could increase as much as 14% as a result, but that hasn't happened yet, Cook said in a recent interview.

"The Chinese have not targeted Apple at all, and I don't anticipate that happening, to be honest, "Cook said in an interview with CBS News, conceding a tariff on the iPhone would hurt sales of the smartphone. (Disclosure: CBS News is owned by CBS, the parent company of CNET.)

"I'm hoping that doesn't happen," he said in the interview. "The truth is, the iPhone is made everywhere. It's made everywhere. And so, a tariff on the iPhone would hurt all of those countries, but the one that would be hurt the most is this one."

The Chinese tariffs were announced in retaliation for Trump promising to increase tariffs from 10% to 25% on roughly $ 200 billion worth of imports from China. .The US tariffs on China went into effect in May despite the administration's continued trade talks with Chinese officials.

Cook went on to say he's "proud" to engage regularly with the White House, noting that keeping the lines of communications open helps. solve problems.

"I don't believe in the" I disagree with you, and so I don't want to have anything to do with you, "" he said. "The way you stop the polarization is to talk. This is sort of like one step. And I don't want to be part of the problem – I want to be part of the solution."

Cook characterized his discussions with Trump as fairly straightforward, with a lot of back and forth.

"He listens to the comments, which I appreciate," Cook said. "Sometimes he doesn't agree, but my philosophy on things is that you always engage, even when you know you're gonna wind up on very opposite sides."

The interview also touches on the debate on screen time and concerns people are absorbed in their phones rather than in personal interactions.

Cook said he receives a weekly report of his iPhone usage, calling the results "pretty profound." The results prompted him to change his habits so that he was less tempted to pick up his device.

"We made the phone so that you will use it all the time. "Cook said. "But for me, my simple rule is if I'm looking at the device more than I'm looking into someone's eyes, I'm doing the wrong thing." Cook's interview comes as Apple hosts designers, engineers and developers this week at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California. During Monday's keynote presentation, Apple's CEO and other top brass features iOS 13 a new Mac Pro a new operating system for the iPad and more .

privacy moves and about recent calls to break up Silicon Valley tech giants . When asked whether Apple is too big, Cook said no. Cook duty O'Donnell he thinks "the scrutiny is fair," but he said he strongly disagrees with Elizabeth Warren's call for Apple and other big tech companies to be broken up

CNET's Andrew Morse contributed to this report. [9659019] $ 999