Trump tariffs live updates: TikTok in focus as Trump-Xi try to break trade deadlock
President Trump and China's President Xi Jinping will look to reach an agreement on Friday that will help keep the video app TikTok in the US and ease tensions between the two major economies that are currently locked in a standoff over trade.
US officials said the agreement, which is at the top of the agenda, is expected to be discussed on Friday morning. China has yet to confirm plans for the call, but according to Reuters, it is expected to lead to a in-person summit between Trump and Xi in November.
Amid complex trade talks with the US, China dropped a months-long antitrust probe into Google (GOOG) amid discussions of a TikTok deal — while also increasing pressure on domestic purchases of Nvidia (NVDA) chips.
“Drop one case but seize the other,” a person familiar with the matter told FT. “China is trying to narrow its retaliatory targets to make them more potent.”
Meanwhile, Trump's visit to the UK saw some deals and announcements. The UK has shelved plans to talk with the US on removing British steel tariffs, meaning current duties will stay in place, according to a report in Bloomberg.
British drugmaker GSK (GSK) said on Wednesday they will invest $30 billion in US research and development. GSK is the largest pharmaceutical firm to scale up its US footprint as Trump threatens to impose import tariffs on the industry and seeks more domestic manufacturing.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who led the US delegation during talks with Chinese trade officials in Spain this week, said that he is confident a trade deal with China is near.
With reciprocal tariffs set to take effect in November, Bessent told reporters he expects further talks to happen before then.
In the background, the Supreme Court is reviewing a high-stakes legal challenge to President Trump's tariffs, setting up a resolution as early as this fall.
The high court put the case on track for oral arguments in early November. That puts the case on an unusually quick track to resolution.
The tariffs at stake are the sweeping "reciprocal," country-specific duties Trump has outlined in various steps this year (which you can see in the graphic below). Those duties range from 10% to 50%. Trump has used a 1977 law known as "IEEPA" — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — to justify imposing the tariffs.
The appeals court allowed the tariffs to stay in place while the case moves through the legal process.
