Trump cuts tariffs on Chinese imports after meeting Jinping in South Korea

United States USPresident Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he has decided to lower tariff rates on Chinese imports to 47 per cent following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking news agency AP reportedTrump told reporters that he had chosen to reduce the current rate from 57 per cent after the discussionsAhead of his meeting with the Chinese President Trump had threatened a sharp hike that would have raised tariffs by 100 per cent However he later said that he did not need to go ahead with that planHowever the meeting between the two leaders did not reach any conclusion on the ownership of TikTok AP reportedldquoChina will work with the US to properly resolve issues related to TikTokrdquo Chinarsquos Commerce Ministry said after the meetingHowever it did not share any details on progress made towards resolving the uncertainty surrounding the popular videosharing platformrsquos future in the USThe Trump administration had been indicating that it might have finally reached an understanding with Beijing to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said on CBSrsquos Face the Nation on Sunday that the two leaders would ldquoconsummate that transaction on Thursday in KoreardquoEarlier during the Joe Biden administration the US Congress had passed a law that would ban TikTok in the US unless it found a new owner to replace Chinarsquos ByteDance The platform briefly went dark on a January deadline but on his first day in office Trump signed an executive order allowing it to continue while his administration worked on a potential saleTrump later issued three more executive orders extending the deadlines for a deal even though there was no clear legal basis for doing so The second order came in April when the White House believed it was close to finalising a plan to spin off TikTok into a new company with American ownership That deal however fell through after China pulled out following Trumprsquos announcement of significantly higher tariffs on Chinese goodsDeadlines in June and September also passed without a breakthrough with Trump maintaining that TikTok would be allowed to operate in the US in a manner consistent with national security concernsTrumprsquos order was intended to enable a consortium of American investors to acquire the app from ByteDance though such a deal would still require Chinarsquos approvalHowever ldquothe TikTok deal is not really a big thing for Xi Jinpingrdquo said Bonnie Glaser Managing Director of the German Marshall Fundrsquos IndoPacific Programme during a media briefing on Tuesday ldquoChina is happy to let Trump declare that they have finally kept a deal Whether or not that deal will protect the data of Americans is a big question going forwardrdquoldquoA big question mark for the United States of course is whether this is consistent with US law since there was a law passed by Congressrdquo Glaser addedAs per a Pew Research Centre report published in September around 43 per cent of US adults under the age of 30 said they regularly get their news from TikTok mdash a higher proportion than from YouTube Facebook or InstagramAnother Pew survey found that about onethird of Americans said they supported a ban on TikTok down from 50 per cent in March 2023 Roughly onethird said they opposed a ban while a similar share said they were unsure Among those supporting a ban nearly eight in ten cited concerns about data security as a major reasonThe ongoing security debate focuses on TikTokrsquos recommendation algorithm which drives its highly personalised video feed China has maintained that the algorithm must remain under Chinese control by law while a bipartisan US regulation requires that any divestment of TikTok must completely cut ties with ByteDanceAmerican officials have warned that the algorithm mdash a complex system determining what content users see mdash could be susceptible to manipulation by Chinese authorities However no concrete evidence has been presented so far to show that China has attempted such interferenceWith AP inputs