image: Apple

Apple has began selling iPhone XRs assembled in India, as indicated by boxes of the smartphone with an “Assembled in India” tag sighted on Monday at several of the country’s electronics retailers. The sighted iPhone XRs starts from 49,900 Indian rupees ($704) for the 64 GB version, as first reported by Reuters. The “Assembled in India” iPhones corroborate a previous report that Foxconn, a well-known Apple supplier, was looking to start assembling high-end iPhones in India.

Apple assembling iPhones in India isn’t quite surprising. Assembling locally is not only a way to avoid high levies usually placed on fully-imported devices, but could also be a way to meet local sourcing demands for Apple, which is said to be looking to open its first retail store in India. There’s also an ongoing trade war between the U.S., where Apple is based, and China, where most of its phones are manufactured. Companies like Apple are looking to use India as an export hub to allay the impact of the trade war, which may potentially lead to higher tariffs (atop already imposed ones) on goods imported from China into the U.S.

Also, the administration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to position the country as a hub for smartphone manufacturing. In September, India even lowered corporate tax rates as an incentive to boost smartphone production in the country. With Apple now manufacturing in India, the country seems to have gotten some good results from its push, and could be looking towards more of such results as other companies shift manufacturing from China to soften the impacts of a trade war. One of such companies is Fitbit, which recently announced plans to shift manufacturing of all its trackers and smartwatches outside China. Although Fitbit hasn’t stated where it’s moving manufacturing to, one might guess it could be India.