Foxconn CEO Concerned about US-China Trade War

Jakarta -Foxconn officials Terry Gou confirmed the Apple device assembler company that has had a number of strategies to deal with the US-China trade war will get hotter in the future.

Taiwanese tycoons also recognize the biggest challenge facing Foxconn Technology Group is the trade war of the two countries.

“Trade war is not just about trading, but also about technology and manufacturing war,” he said as quoted by Bloomberg, Saturday (23/06/2018).

Unfortunately, Gou does not describe the strategy in detail at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

During this time, Foxconn assembles the iPhone and several other devices in several factories in mainland China. The company is the company with the largest employee in China, which is about 1 million people, so its position is sensitive to any developments of the trade war that will affect Apple.

China’s economy and its burgeoning technology industry are in the prime position of trade chaos with the United States. Now, China is targeting Asian markets and limiting government aid funds to expand its strategic industry.

In addition to trade warfare, Gou criticized the domestic employment law in China, related to restrictions on overtime workers and other rules that could potentially degrade the company’s competitiveness.

On the other hand, Foxconn has also long been attacked over its workers’ overtime policies amid peak demand seasons of goods, such as during holidays.

Related to this, he argued his workers really want to work longer. Gou says forcing them to cut down on time is tantamount to reducing their income.

“China has strict rules on overtime compared to the US and European Union (EU) and they themselves understand that this is an unreasonable rule,” he said.

As a result, companies must follow Chinese rules when the season is quiet request and apply US rules when demand peaks.

Gou believes Foxconn should be governed by US regulations because it is the world’s largest electronics producer and most of its customers are Apple and Amazon.com Inc.

To overcome this problem, he promised to hire robots to replace 80% of human workers in the coming years.