After the White House finalized a deal on TikTok last week, Trump’s tariffs upended negotiations, prompting China to decline to approve the deal without further discussions on tariffs.
Trump deepened his trade war with China on Wednesday, hiking tariffs on Chinese goods to a staggering 125 percent while easing them on nearly all other countries.
As Trump goes to battle with China, he may be handing Beijing greater bargaining power, experts said.
“This national security imperative to divest from ByteDance is now giving China leverage at the same time that Trump is trying to put the screws to them with tariffs,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.
The president signed an executive order Friday, once again delaying enforcement of a law that required ByteDance to divest from TikTok or face a ban on U.S. app stores and networks.
After taking office, Trump gave TikTok an initial 75-day reprieve from the ban, which was set to expire last Saturday. His latest executive order gives the app another 75 days to reach a deal and avert a ban.
In his announcement late last week, Trump touted the “tremendous progress” his administration had made on a deal but said it “requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed.”
However, a source familiar with the negotiations told The Hill that a deal had been approved by existing investors, new investors, ByteDance and the U.S. government last Wednesday.
The deal would have seen TikTok’s U.S. operations spun off into a new company owned and operated by a majority of American investors, while ByteDance would maintain a minority stake in the company.
After Trump announced his new slate of “reciprocal” tariffs, including a 34 percent tariff on Chinese goods, ByteDance said China would no longer approve the deal, according to the source.
“When ByteDance then withdraws from consideration of this deal, it’s not surprising,” Kreps said, adding, “They now have the bargaining leverage, because this TikTok deal cannot go forward unless they agree to it.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
