A substantial pain no doubt to have to rebrand the most valuable product on the planet just for the Brazil market, but given it's such a huge market I'm sure they'll figure it out.
Apple Phone? iPod Phone? iOS Phone?
Apple Phone? iPod Phone? iOS Phone?
Imported iphone taxes: 60% import taxes + 7%-15% sales state tax if you are a reseller or 0% if you are the customer. 0% industrial tax.
Made in brazil taxes: 7-15% sales state tax, 6% industrial taxes.
B) When I looked this up the ratio between Brazil and China ranges between 2x and 3.5x. (China doesn't have a single national minimum.)
C) On the more important comparison, PPP per capita GDP the ratio is less than 2x.
It seems like 60% tariffs are still significant. We're all acquainted with the nearly universal practice of doing most manufacture in a cheap nation and then doing only the final assembly (or sometimes disassembly) in the importing nation. If this isn't what you're seeing you haven't been paying attention.
Also, note that China also has a significant import tax, and you don't get around it by making things in China! Special export zones are complicated, so basically everything is imported. The markup on China vs. US is about 20-30% right now, not as bad as before.
As noted in another thread, wages in Brazil aren't that great, its still a 2nd-world country. Perhaps ahead of China, but the growth vectors are fairly clear that China will overtake Brazil soon in per-person GDP and probably wages after that.
The 60% rate applies only to individuals; companies generally pays much less and in the case of cellphones it currently stands at 18.1%.
In which state sales tax (ICMS) is 7%? Or even 15%? All the big states have ICMS rates north of 20%.
Industrial tax (IPI) for electronics is 8%.
When Apple assembles iPhones in Brazil, how much do they pay in taxes on the components like the screen and flash from Samsung or LG? How much do they pay on the software value add done in California?
Final assembly is just a small part of making iPhones, so moving it to Brazil for a tax advantage is a no-brainer, but Brazil could still make a fuss about components, which they don't seem to be doing; this is a giant loophole.