US President Donald Trump has hinted at a possible end to the trade war with China, which has seen tariff hikes rattle global markets. However, he noted that the situation with TikTok will likely remain in limbo, Reuters reports.
“I don’t want to keep raising tariffs because at some point people are just going to stop buying things,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “So I may not want to raise them or even get to that level. I may want to lower them because we need people to buy things, and at some point they’re not going to,” he added.
Trump said Beijing has continued to engage with Washington since the tariffs were imposed and he is optimistic about the prospects for a trade deal. However, Trump avoided giving details about the progress of the talks and did not specify whether Chinese President Xi Jinping was personally involved.
Trump has repeatedly extended a deadline for China’s ByteDance to sell the U.S. assets of the short-video app used by 170 million Americans. On Thursday, he said a deal to spin off the assets would likely wait until the trade dispute was resolved.
“We have a proposal for TikTok, but it’s dependent on China, so we’re just going to hold off until that situation is resolved one way or another,” Trump said.
