US, China reach deal to allow TikTok sale, Bessent says — with Trump and Xi set to ‘consummate’ agreement

WASHINGTON — The US and China have finalized a deal to transfer the American version of TikTok to new owners, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed on Sunday.

President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will officially “consummate” that deal when they meet in Busan, South Korea on Thursday — marking the first time the two have seen each other in person since 2019.

“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We reached one in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea.

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Trump had signed an executive order last month to pave the way for the TikTok transfer deal, but the two sides still had a few details to figure out at the time.

Bessent declined to provide additional details about the finalized deal, noting that he wasn’t “part of the commercial side of the transaction.”

“My remit was to get the Chinese to agree to approve the transaction, and I believe we successfully accomplished that over the past two days,” he explained.

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Under the framework unveiled last month in Trump’s executive order, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance will own less than 20% of the popular video-sharing platform and “certain investors” will get 80% of it. 

That would comply with legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Joe Biden last year mandating that TikTok be divested from its Chinese Communist Party-linked ownership due to US national security concerns. 

Trump has repeatedly delayed the deadline for TikTok to be divested to buy time for negotiations to play out. If BytDance refused to divest, TikTok would’ve been banned from key app stores in the US. 

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The president previously said that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, tech mogul Michael Dell and News Corp Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch will play a role in the TikTok deal.

It’s unclear if anything significant changed during the finalization of the deal. 

Bessent also indicated that Trump plans to withdraw the 155% tariff rate he threatened against Beijing last week due to frustrations over China’s plans to tighten export controls on its rare earth processing. That 155% tariff rate would’ve taken effect on Nov. 1, according to Trump. Currently, the US has a roughly 55% tariff rate levied on most imports from China. 

“It would be an extra 100% from where we are now, and I believe that that is effectively off the table,” Bessent said. “I’m not going to get ahead of the two leaders who will be meeting in Korea on Thursday, but I can tell you we had a very good two days.”

“So I would expect that the threat of the 100% has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime.”

The Treasury secretary also teased that “soybean farmers are going to be extremely happy with this deal for this year and for the coming years,” without elaborating.

Critics accused the Trump administration of harming US soybean farmers with a $20 billion currency swap given to Argentina, fretting that propping up Buenos Aires’ economy would enable the Latin American country to sell more soybeans to China. 

“Those soybeans were always going to get purchased. They just did it at a time when the Argentines had lifted their export taxes. So those soybeans were always going to be on the market,” Bessent countered. 

“I believe that we have brought the market back into equilibrium, and I believe that the Chinese will be making substantial purchases again.”