SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Washington: US President Donald Trump has given another lifeline for Chinese-owned social media application TikTok amid an escalating trade war with China that has sent markets plunging and sparked fears of a global recession and trade showdown.
The popular app was briefly disabled in the US earlier this year after a deadline expired for owner ByteDance to divest its US operations to a non-Chinese owner or face a ban. Trump, who took office the day after, immediately issued an executive order extending the deadline for 75 days.
President Trump has announced he will extend the TikTok deadline by another 75 days.Credit: AP
As the new deadline approached on Friday (Saturday AEDT), the US president announced he would extend it by another 75 days. He said there was more work to do, but acknowledged the tariffs on China may complicate a potential deal, and said he did not want the app to “go dark” in the meantime.
“My administration has been working very hard on a deal to save TikTok, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on his own TruthSocial platform from his weekend home in Palm Beach, Florida.
“We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs … This proves that tariffs are the most powerful economic tool, and very important to our national security.”
Trump hit China with an additional 34 per cent tariff on all goods on Thursday, which stacks on top of 20 per cent tariffs already imposed on the US’s main geostrategic rival.
China retaliated with an equivalent tariff on American products and condemned the US president for “bullying” and endangering global economic development.
Trump posted on TruthSocial: “China played it wrong, they panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do!”
During the week, the president said the administration was “very close to a deal with a very good group of people” and entertained the idea the TikTok sale could be used as a bargaining chip in tariff negotiations.
In 2020, Trump was an advocate for banning TikTok but changed his position while campaigning for a return to the presidency after succeeding in attracting attention on the app, particularly from younger voters considered less likely to show up to the polls.
But the sell-or-ban legislation passed by Congress last year stands. Trump’s executive order, in effect, directs his attorney-general not to enforce the law for another 75 days.
TikTok has more than 1 billion active users worldwide, and about 170 million registered users in the US. Its US revenue reached $US10 billion ($16 billion) last year.
Firms reportedly interested in bidding for the app include Amazon, Perplexity AI and Zoop, a startup created by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely. Trump initially said he would like the US government to have a 50 per cent stake in any joint venture.
US markets plunged again on Friday (Saturday AEDT) as the fallout from Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs continued to unfold and fears of global disruption grew.
The White House celebrated a strong March employment report that saw 228,000 jobs added, exceeding market expectations, and announcements that several car-markers would maintain or increase US production following the tariffs.
Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell said the tariffs Trump announced this week went further than predicted and would likely cause at least a temporary increase in inflation – although he warned the effects could be persistent.
“While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected, and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth,” he told the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing in Arlington, Virginia.
“The size and duration of these effects remains uncertain … Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem.”
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