Did US-China tariffs row prevent a TikTok deal?published at 11:04 British Summer Time
Graham Fraser
Technology reporter
A deal over the future of TikTok may have been one of the
first casualties of this new, more intense phase of the US-China trade war.
The US has passed a law which says the hugely popular video
sharing app has to either sell its US operation or be banned. The deadline was
last Saturday.
It seems a deal was nearly finalised on Wednesday last week
but fell apart after Trump, on the same day, announced sweeping global tariffs
– including on China.
Representatives of ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owners,
contacted the White House to inform them China would no longer approve the deal
unless negotiations on the tariffs could take place, a source familiar with the
deal told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
The deal was off – and President Trump extended the deadline
for a deal by 75 days.
What could happen next? Well, if a week is a long time in politics,
then 10 weeks is an absolute age.
With Washington and Beijing exchanging more threats and
defiant rhetoric, it may be that no agreement over TikTok’s future will prove
to be the one of the first real world consequences of these new tariffs.ment over TikTok’s future will prove to be the one of the first real world consequences of the tariff war.
