Trump dangles possibility of lower tariffs for China to make TikTok sale happen

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.

The law is the result of concern in Washington that TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government and that Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on Americans.

Trump said he was willing to extend the deadline if an agreement over the social media app was not reached.

He acknowledged the role China will play to get any deal done, including giving its approval, telling reporters that “maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done.”

TikTok did not immediately comment.

Trump’s comment suggests the sale of TikTok is a priority for his administration and important enough to use tariffs as a bargaining chip with Beijing.

In February and earlier this month, Trump added levies totalling 20 per cent to existing tariffs on all imports from China.

Getting Beijing to agree to any deal to give up control of the TikTok 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 TikTok negotiations in the past.

Tariffs threatened earlier

On Jan. 20, Trump’s first day in office, he warned that he could impose tariffs on China if it failed to approve a U.S. deal with TikTok. Earlier this month, the president hiked his additional tariffs on all imports from China to 20 per cent, up from 10 per cent issued in February.

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance has said he expects the general terms of an agreement that resolves the ownership of the social media platform to be reached by April 5.

Reuters reported last week that White House-led talks among investors are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese backers of ByteDance to increase their stakes and acquire the video app’s U.S. operations, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

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 requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan. 19.

The app briefly went dark in January after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban, but it flickered back to life days later once Trump took office.

He quickly issued an executive order postponing enforcement of the law to April 5 and said last month that he could extend that deadline to give himself time to shepherd a deal.

The White House has been involved to an unprecedented level in the closely watched deal talks, effectively playing the role of investment bank.

Free-speech advocates have argued that the ban unlawfully threatens to restrict Americans from accessing foreign media in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.