“If I gave a small discount on tariffs, they would approve this agreement in 15 minutes,” said the US president
United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that China “frustrated” an agreement to sell Tiktok because of the Beijing tariffs last week.
“We had an agreement, about Tiktok, not an agreement, but quite close, and then China changed the deal due to tariffs. If I gave a small tariff discount, they would approve this agreement in 15 minutes,” Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One.
Last week, the US government announced an additional 34% tariff over all Chinese imports. A day later, Trump extended for another 75 days the deadline for Tiktok to find a buyer outside China, under penalty of banning the application in the United States. The deadline for the company to sell its assets to a non -Chinese owner in the US would win on Saturday (5).
Tiktok, controlled by the Chinese company Bytedance, has over 170 million users in the US market and is the target of a law passed last year, which requires the separation of its Chinese controller’s platform.
Bytedance has confirmed that it maintains negotiations with the US government, but stressed that there are still “key issues to be resolved.” In a statement, the company stressed that “no agreement has been signed” and that any decision will be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”
(with AFP)
