“With respect to TikTok, and China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly in the form of an approval, maybe, and I think they’ll do that. Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be willing to reduce tariffs to get a deal done with TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the short video app used by 170 million Americans.
ByteDance has an April 5 deadline to find a non-Chinese buyer for TikTok or face a U.S. ban on national security grounds that was supposed to have taken effect in January under a 2024 law.
If no agreement was reached regarding the social media app, Trump stated that he would be willing to extend the deadline. “With respect to TikTok, China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly in the form of an approval, maybe, and I think they’ll do that.
Tarif Concessions if China Agrees TikTok Deal
Trump told reporters on Wednesday, “Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done.” TikTok did not immediately comment.
Getting China to agree to any deal to give up control of the unit worth tens of billions of dollars has always been the biggest sticking point to getting any agreement finalized. Trump has used tariffs as a bargaining chip in the negotiations in the past.
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On January 20, his first day in office, he warned that he could impose tariffs on China if Beijing failed to approve a U.S. deal with TikTok.
Trump increased his additional tariffs on all imports from China to 20% earlier this month, up from 10% in February.
According to Vice President JD Vance, he anticipates that general terms for a settlement of the ownership dispute over the social media platform will be reached by April 5.
The future of the app used by nearly half of all Americans has been up in the air since a law, passed last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, required ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19.
In January, the app briefly went dark after the United States Supreme Court upheld the ban, but flickered back to life days later once Trump took office.
Last month, Trump stated that he could further extend the deadline to give himself time to shepherd a deal. He quickly issued an executive order delaying the law’s implementation until April 5.
The White House has been involved to an unprecedented level in the closely watched deal talks, effectively playing the role of investment bank.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by US News Forum staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)