Getting China to agree to any deal to give up control of the TikTok unit worth tens of billions of dollars has always been the biggest sticking point to getting any agreement finalised. Trump has used tariffs as a bargaining chip in the TikTok negotiations in the past.
On Jan 20, his first day in office, he warned that he could impose tariffs on China if Beijing failed to approve a US deal with TikTok. Earlier this month, Trump hiked his additional tariffs on all imports from China to 20 per cent up from 10 per cent issued in February.
Vice President JD Vance has said he expects the general terms of an agreement that resolves the ownership of the social media platform to be reached by Apr 5.
The future of the app used by nearly half of all Americans has been up in the air since a law, passed last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, required ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan 19.
The app briefly went dark in January after the US Supreme Court upheld the ban, but flickered back to life days later once Trump took office.
Trump quickly issued an executive order postponing enforcement of the law to Apr 5 and said last month that he could further extend that deadline to give himself time to shepherd a deal.
The White House has been involved to an unprecedented level in the closely watched deal talks, effectively playing the role of investment bank.
