Relief for TikTok: US judge blocks Trump administration's app store ban

 By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Washington late on Sunday temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that was set to bar Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google from offering Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok for download at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a nominee of President Donald Trump, who joined the court last year, said in a brief order he was issuing a preliminary injunction to prevent the TikTok app store ban from taking effect.

Nichols declined "at this time" to block other Commerce Department restrictions set to take effect on Nov. 12 that TikTok has warned would have the impact of making the app unusable in the United States.

Nichols' detailed written opinion is expected to be released as soon as Monday.

John E. Hall, a lawyer for TikTok, had argued during a 90-minute Sunday morning hearing that the ban was "unprecedented" and "irrational."

"How does it make sense to impose this app store ban tonight when there are negotiations under way that might make it unnecessary?" Hall asked during the hearing. "This is just punitive. This is just a blunt way to whack the company. ... There is simply no urgency here."

U.S. officials have expressed national security concerns that personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by China's Communist Party government.

ByteDance said on Sept. 20 it made a preliminary deal for Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to take stakes in a new company, TikTok Global, that would oversee U.S. operations. Negotiations continue over the terms of the agreement and to resolve concerns from Washington and Beijing.

The deal is still to be reviewed by the U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

The Justice Department said a preliminary injunction allowing Americans to continue downloading the TikTok app would be "interfering with a formal national security judgment of the president; altering the landscape with respect to ongoing CFIUS negotiations; and continuing to allow sensitive and valuable user information to flow to ByteDance with respect to all new users."

On Sept. 19, the Commerce Department delayed the ban to give the companies an additional week to finalize a deal.

TikTok argues the restrictions, amid rising U.S.-China tensions under the Trump administration, "were not motivated by a genuine national security concern, but rather by political

considerations relating to the upcoming general election."

Another U.S. judge, in Pennsylvania, on Saturday rejected a bid by three TikTok content creators to block the ban, while a judge in California has blocked a similar order from taking effect on Tencent Holdings' WeChat app.

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Peter Cooney)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Why Trump tariffs on Chinese products are making corporate America jittery

Washington’s action against Chinese imports Friday, and the expected response from Beijing, are hurting some U.S. industries more than others. Here’s a round-up of Bloomberg’s coverage of how the dispute is playing out in corporate America.
Renewables
President Donald Trump’s tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports include duties on components for wind turbines, nuclear reactors and batteries -- but they are unlikely to cripple any of those industries.
Less than 2 percent of wind turbines installed in the U.S. since 2010 were imported from China, Stephen Munro, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an email Friday.
“It may prove to be a glancing blow as there are non-Chinese alternatives available,” he said.
The list of targeted products includes components used in most lithium-ion batteries, Ravi Manghani, an analyst at GTM Research, said in an email. But China supplies the U.S. with just 3 percent of those products, he said. Plus, he added, American manufacturers have multiple alternatives from Japan and South Korea.
When it comes to nukes, there are only two reactors under construction in the U.S., and it’s unlikely ground will be broken on any more large ones in the next decade, Chris Gadomski, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst, said in an email. “Any new reactors that may be built would be U.S. developed advanced reactors absent Chinese components,” Gadomski said in an email.
Apparel
The clothing and footwear industry was largely spared by Trump administration tariffs on Chinese goods, but a looming trade war could still do damage to an apparel sector that’s more global than ever.
The actual shirts and shoes imported from China won’t get new tariffs, according to the full list of 1,102 product lines released Friday. Only some of the equipment used to make them, like textile rolling-machine parts and injection molders for shoes, were included in the final list. A host of other Chinese machinery used by American apparel companies that had been on a preliminary tariff list -- like textile printing equipment, sewing machines and looms -- made it through unscathed.
Agriculture
Soybean futures fell to the lowest in 10 months in anticipation of retaliation from China. Prices for November delivery dropped 0.7 percent to $9.4375 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade after touching $9.2725, the lowest for the most active contract since August 17, 2017. This week, the oilseed tumbled 5.8 percent, poised for a record decline.
Duties against U.S. shipments may mean that China imports more from South America at a premium, Rabobank said in a report. Prices in Brazil, the world’s top exporter, are rising after a national trucker strike stalled freight and a drought in Argentina cut global global supplies.
Cotton for December delivery tumbled as much as 3.7 percent to 89.52 cents per pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. “Fears that U.S. cotton may be involved in the China retaliatory response helped to drive the market sharply lower,” David Hightower, founder of Chicago-based Hightower Report, said in a note.
Metals/Mining
Metals & mining was the worst-performing sector on the S&P 500 Index.
While iconic U.S. metal stocks Alcoa Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. had previously benefited from the Trump administration’s initial crackdown on cheap imports, the shares were trading down Friday.
It’s part of a mining and metal selloff fueled by concern that Trump’s announcement will end up curtailing demand in the world’s biggest consumer of raw materials. Shares in Alcoa fell as much as 5.7 percent Friday, while U.S. Steel lost 6.3 percent.
A fall in other metals, from aluminum to zinc, spurred declines for Teck Resources Ltd., Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and other miners. China is the biggest consumer of industrial metals.
The tariffs mean China “won’t be importing as much of the base metals,” said Peter Thomas, a senior vice president at Chicago-based metals broker Zaner Group. “As these tariffs take effect, we’ll see less consumption from each side until it gets settled. It started with base metals and it’s pulling on gold.”