President Donald Trump on Friday granted a 75-day extension to Chinese tech firm ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets to a non-Chinese buyer, delaying a ban that was set to take effect in January under a 2024 law.
"The deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed," Trump said on social media, explaining why he was extending the deadline he set in January that was supposed to have expired on Saturday. "We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand is not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs."
China now faces a 54% tariff on goods imported into the United States after Trump announced he was hiking them by 34% this week, prompting China to retaliate on Friday. Trump has said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with ByteDance to sell the app used by 170 million Americans.
A ByteDance spokesperson said on Friday that the company "has been in discussion with the U.S. government regarding a potential solution for TikTok U.S. An agreement has not been executed. There are key matters to be resolved. Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law."
Trump has said his administration was in touch with four different groups about a prospective TikTok deal. He has not identified them.
A major stumbling block to any deal for TikTok's U.S. business is Chinese government approval. China has not made a public commitment to allow a sale and Trump's comments suggested renewed Chinese opposition.
"We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the deal," Trump wrote on Friday.
"We do not want TikTok to 'go dark,'" Trump added.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congress passed the measure last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, as lawmakers cited the risk of the Chinese government exploiting TikTok to spy on Americans and carry out covert influence operations. Democratic then-president Joe Biden signed it into law.
Some lawmakers have said Trump must enforce the law, which required TikTok to stop operating by January 19 unless ByteDance had completed a divestiture of the app's U.S. assets. Trump began his second term as president on January 20 and opted not to enforce it.
The Justice Department in January told Apple and Google that it would not enforce the law, which led them to restore the app for new downloads.
The new Trump order will set a mid-June deadline for a deal.
The White House-led talks on the future of TikTok are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese investors in parent company ByteDance to increase their stakes and acquire the app's U.S. operations, Reuters has reported.
The plan entails spinning off a U.S. entity for TikTok and diluting Chinese ownership in the new business to below the 20 percent threshold required by U.S. law, rescuing the app from a looming U.S. ban, sources have told Reuters.
Jeff Yass' Susquehanna International Group and Bill Ford's General Atlantic, both of which are represented on ByteDance's board, are leading discussions with the White House, Reuters has reported.
Walmart is also considering joining a group of investors in a deal for TikTok, an ABC News reporter said on social media. The big retailer, which had expressed an interest in investing in TikTok in 2020, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
