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Trump suggests TikTok-for-tariff deal after top US, China trade envoys speak for first time
‘Every point in tariffs is worth more than TikTok,’ Trump tells reporters after Vice-Premier He Lifeng and USTR Jamieson Greer trade ‘serious concerns’
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The top US and Chinese trade envoys held a video call on Wednesday, a first for them in US President Donald Trump’s second term, and appeared to cover little new ground. But a few hours later, the president told reporters he would consider cutting tariffs if Beijing supported a deal to sell TikTok’s US operations to a US firm.
The apparent overture came as tensions between the world’s two largest economies intensify over 20 per cent tariffs Trump imposed on all Chinese imports and a demand that China sell the US arm of the hugely popular social media platform, a unit of China’s ByteDance. Without a sale, TikTok faces a ban in the US.
“Every point in tariffs is worth more than TikTok,” Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office as he signed an executive order imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all imported autos. “Maybe I’d give them a reduction in tariffs” in return for China agreeing to a TikTok sale, Trump hinted.
Trump said he envisioned at least the framework of a TikTok agreement by next week.
“We’re going to have a form of a deal, but if it’s not finished, it’s not a big deal. We’ll just extend it,” Trump said. “I have the right to have the deal and to extend it if I want.”
The introductory call earlier in the day between Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, meanwhile saw both sides raise “serious concerns” about the other nation’s trade policies, according to US and Chinese readouts.
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