US President Donald Trump says he may cut tariffs on China to help seal a deal for short video app TikTok to be sold by its owner ByteDance, the BBC reported.
Trump also said he is willing to extend a 5 April deadline for a non-Chinese buyer of the platform to be found.In January, he delayed the implementation of a law passed under the Biden administration to ban TikTok, according to the British media outlet.
The legislation, which was signed into law in 2024, cited national security grounds for the sell or be banned order.
President Trump signs tariff orders
"With respect to TikTok, and China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly in the form of an approval, maybe, and I think they'll do that," Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
"Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done," he added.
Trump also said he expected at least the outline of a deal to be reached by the 5 April deadline. The BBC has contacted TikTok and the Chinese embassy in Washington for comment.
The biggest sticking point to finalising a deal to sell the TikTok business, which is worth tens of billions of dollars, has always been securing Beijing's agreement. Trump has previously tried to use tariffs as leverage in the negotiations, the London-based news channle reported.
On his first day back in the White House, on 20 January, the president threatened more import duties on China if it did not approve a TikTok deal. The hugely popular app is used by around 170 million Americans. Separately, the US increased levies on all imports from China to 20% this month.
That doubled the tariffs Trump imposed on the world's second largest economy on 4 February. On 10 February, China responded with its own tariffs, including a 10-15% tax on some US agricultural goods.
Beijing has also targeted various US aviation, defence and tech firms by adding them to an "unreliable entity list" and imposing export controls. The 10% levy doubled to 20% on 4 March. China has urged the US to return to dialogue with Beijing as soon as possible, according to the BBC.