TikTok sale stalled as Trump claims China withdrew over US tariffs, extends deadline by 75 days

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for the tariffs imposed by Washington on Beijing last week.

Trump on Friday extended the deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States, allowing 75 more days to find a solution – a day after imposing additional 34 percent duties on all Chinese imports.

“The report is that we had a deal, pretty much for TikTok, not a deal, but pretty close, and then China changed the deal because of tariffs. If I gave a little cut in tariffs, they’d approve that deal in 15 minutes, which shows you the power of tariffs,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has more than 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law passed last year that orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or get shut down in the United States.

Trump had insisted his administration was near a deal to find a buyer for TikTok and keep it from shutting down that would involve multiple investors, but gave few details.

ByteDance, while confirming that it was in talks with the US government towards finding a solution, warned that there remained “key matters” to solve.

“An agreement has not been executed” and whatever was decided would be “subject to approval under Chinese law,” the company added.