Donald Trump has delayed a potential ban on TikTok for a second time – after China reportedly stalled on a deal to sell its US operations in response to his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
The short-form video app was set to be banned in the US the day before Mr Trump returned to the White House in January unless its Chinese owner ByteDance agreed to sell its US operations to a non-Chinese buyer.
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But on his inauguration on 20 January Mr Trump signed an executive order delaying the deadline.
On Friday, Mr Trump announced he is extending the deadline again by 75 days, claiming the potential sales deal “requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed”.
“We hope to continue working in good faith with China,” he wrote on social media, adding he “understands” that Beijing is “not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs”.
As part of his “Liberation Day” – Mr Trump increased tariffs on Chinese goods coming into the US from 20% to 54%, prompting retaliation from China.
Beijing said it would respond with its own 34% tariff on imports of all US products from 10 April.
Mr Trump added on Friday: “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the deal.”
ByteDance said in a statement on the Chinese social media platform WeChat on Friday: “We are still in talks with the US government, but no agreement has been reached and the two sides still have differences on many key issues.”
It added that “in accordance with Chinese law, any agreement is subject to the relevant review procedures”.
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The deal would have seen TikTok’s US arm run by a new US-based company – with majority owned US investors and ByteDance having a stake of less than 20%.
It had been approved by existing and new investors, ByteDance, and the US government, sources told the Reuters news agency.
But Chinese government approval appears to remain an issue.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said in a statement on Friday: “China has stated its position on TikTok on multiple occasions.
“China has always respected and protected the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and opposed practices that violate the basic principles of the market economy.”
Mr Trump has said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to ensure a TikTok deal.
His administration has said he is in touch with four different groups over the deal – but has not revealed who they are.
The original law that would have imposed a ban received overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed by former US President Joe Biden.
Both Democrats and Republicans were agreed on their concerns TikTok could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans.
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In the UK, TikTok remains banned on all UK government phones – despite ministers launching an official account for the government.
The ‘UK Gov’ account was created last week and has so far posted a series of public service messages on topics including digital driving licences and Labour’s plan to boost neighbourhood policing.
