Trump's TikTok plan derailed by China tariffs - Media
Photo: Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump was on the verge of finalizing a deal to sell TikTok that would have saved the social media platform from being banned in the country. However, the deal was derailed by tariffs, according to Bloomberg and The Washington Post.
Sources revealed that after months of negotiations, US officials were close to a deal on Wednesday that would have launched a new version of TikTok in the US, owned and managed mostly by American investors.
The proposal included reducing the stake of the Chinese company ByteDance to below 20% to comply with US law. As a reminder, the law requires the Beijing-based parent company to sell its stake in TikTok, or the app will be banned in the US.
White House officials planned for Trump to sign an order approving this proposal, which would have been supported by investors and ByteDance and would have opened a 120-day window to finalize the deal. The announcement was to be made by the April 5 deadline to avoid the social media platform’s ban.
However, the plan quickly fell apart the day after Trump announced major tariffs on US trading partners on April 2. These tariffs raised the overall rate on many Chinese imports to 54%. ByteDance representatives warned on Thursday that Beijing would no longer approve the deal until tariff negotiations occurred, which angered China and led to retaliatory measures against the US.
Trump’s Reaction
After the deal was derailed, Trump announced on Friday that he would extend the deadline for reaching an agreement by another 75 days. At the same time, ByteDance publicly confirmed negotiations with the US government regarding TikTok, stating that key issues still needed to be resolved and that any deal had to be approved under Chinese law.
Trump, in his post, reiterated his desire for China to help facilitate the sale, suggesting that the US could offer a tariff discount in exchange for Beijing's approval.
“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs,” Trump wrote. “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.”
