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President Donald Trump said tariffs on China could depend on a deal over TikTok’s ownership, as he signed an executive order to keep the popular short-video platform online in the United States for 75 days.
A few hours after his inauguration MondayTrump postponed a deadline requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its stake in the app or face a ban in the country.
Trump said the United States “should be entitled to half the budget.” TikTok” if the app continued to operate beyond that threshold and that he could “certainly” impose tariffs on China if it refused a deal, which he said would be a “hostile act.”
He said tariffs could reach 100 percent. “Ultimately (Beijing) would approve it because we would impose tariffs on China,” Asset said while signing the order. “I’m not saying I would, but you definitely could.”
China was one of three countries that Trump threatened to impose tariffs on his first day in office. On Monday, he said he could impose levies of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico from February 1.
But he did not impose massive 60 percent levies on Chinese imports as he had promised during the campaign, which would have marked a new stage in the trade war with Beijing during his first term.
The decision to suspend tariffs against China appears to offer a bargaining chip for a TikTok deal. Asset spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday and said it raised the issue of TikTok, although Beijing did not confirm the discussion.
TikTok became temporarily unavailable to around 170 million US users at midnight on Sunday, after the original divest or ban law deadline, but it service resumed a few hours later.
The executive order says companies that distribute and host TikTok – including Apple and Google as well as cloud provider Oracle – will not be held liable for any violations of the law during the 75-day extension. Under the law, service providers faced fines of $5,000 per user.
But Tom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned companies Sunday that they risk “ruinous bankruptcy” by violating the law.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew went on a charm offensive after Trump indicated during his campaign that he hoped to “save” the app.
Chew attended the inauguration alongside tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and sat next to Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, drawing criticism from some observers.
Many U.S. politicians and security officials believe the Chinese government could use TikTok to access Americans’ personal information, which could facilitate spying, and use the app’s algorithm to spread propaganda. TikTok denies that Beijing has any control over the app.
TikTok also said the divestment was not technologically feasible within the legally mandated time frame. Beijing has indicated it opposes a sale.
Nonetheless, Trump suggested that if the app were to continue operating, the United States should receive “half the value of TikTok,” adding: “If I don’t make the deal, it’s worthless.” If I close the deal, it might be worth a trillion dollars. »
Last week, the The Financial Times reported that Chinese officials were considering using Musk, a close Trump confidant, as a broker in a potential sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations. Musk met Monday with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, who attended Trump’s inauguration.
He also called TikTok’s presence in the United States – while Western platforms such as its social media site X are banned in China – is deemed “unbalanced”, adding that “something needs to change”.
Beijing did not immediately respond to Trump’s remarks threatening to impose tariffs if he did not agree to a deal with TikTok.
On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry said any decisions regarding TikTok ownership should be made “according to market principles and determined by the companies themselves.”
Additional reporting by Aime Williams in Washington