The U.S. government has announced that it’s agreed to a tariff reduction on Chinese imports, effectively pausing an escalating trade war between the nations, and enabling markets to breathe a sigh of relief amid worsening impacts.
And it could also enable talks on a U.S. TikTok deal to go ahead, which the Chinese government had effectively put on hold while the U.S. sought to increase pressure on the nation.
To recap, on January 19th, the Senate-approved TikTok sell-off bill went into effect in the U.S., meaning that TikTok needs to be sold to a U.S.-owned entity in order to continue operating in America. TikTok obviously wasn’t sold by that deadline, but the day after, following his inauguration as President, Donald Trump issued a 75-day hold on enforcement of the bill, in order to give TikTok more time to negotiate a deal.
At the conclusion of that period, and amid Trump’s move to impose massive tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S., the Chinese government effectively refused to talk about a potential TikTok deal, so Trump extended its stay of execution once again, via an Executive Order that gives TikTok another 75 days to find a suitable U.S. partner.
That gives TikTok till June to arrange a sell-off that’ll appease both Chinese and American regulators, though Trump has also noted that he may well extend that deadline once again if a deal can’t be reached.
But now, with the U.S. and China coming to some form of agreement on trade, Chinese officials could once again be free to establish a TikTok deal, which, based on reports, would likely see TikTok sold to Oracle via a partnership deal that would meet the requirements of the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.”
Though those requirements are complex.
The official documentation stipulates that foreign-owned entities can’t own more than 20% of the app, and can’t maintain any control over the platform’s algorithms, aside from data sharing restrictions.
Arranging a deal that meets all of the parameters means ceding more control than TikTok owner ByteDance, or the Chinese government, would like, though President Trump did note in late March that he expected a TikTok deal to be finalized within a week.
Which, of course, it wasn’t, but that could mean that the framework of a deal is already in place, and an easing in trade tensions could be just the break needed to get it through.
Which would offer relief and assurance for TikTok creators, who’ve been on uncertain ground for almost a year, since the initial approval of the sell-off bill.
There’s been no specific discussion of a TikTok deal reported as yet, but this could be a good sign for the future of the app in the U.S.
