Back in 2012, Tim Cook made a commitment to manufacture the Mac Pro in the US and therefore allowed it to carry a "Made in the USA" tag. However, for the 2019 Mac Pro, production is thought to be moving back to China.
As Reuters reports, people familiar with the matter talking to The Wall Street Journal, have confirmed that production is set to move out of Texas. Instead, Quanta Computer has won the contract for new Mac Pro manufacturing, with production happening at a factory in Shanghai.
Starting at $5,999, the new Mac Pro certainly isn't cheap and the move to China for production isn't without risk. Remember, the Trump Administration is in the midst of deciding on whether to impose new tariffs on China, some of which could directly impact Apple's hardware. A 25 percent tariff on the already very expensive desktop computer would be too much for the majority of consumers to stomach.
Foxconn has already stated all iPhone production could be handled outside of China if necessary to avoid tariffs. As Quanta's facilities are all located within China, I doubt they could promise the same to Apple for the Mac Pro.
As usual, Apple doesn't give much away when it does choose to comment. A spokesperson for the company said, "Like all of our products, the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in California and includes components from several countries including the United States ... Final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process."
