WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump

and Chinese President Xi Jinping will seek an agreement on

Friday to help keep the video app TikTok online in the U.S. and

ease tensions between two superpowers locked in a standoff over

trade.

The agreement is at the top of the agenda alongside trade

for the leaders' first known call in three months, expected on

Friday morning, U.S. officials said.

China has not confirmed plans for the call.

Trump and Xi's effort to steady relations comes as the two

governments have been discussing a potential in-person summit

between Xi and Trump during the Asia-Pacific Economic

Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea on October 30-November

1, Reuters has reported.

Beijing's sign-off is one of the hurdles Trump needed to

clear to keep TikTok open. Congress had ordered the app shut

down for U.S. users by January 2025 if its U.S. assets weren't

sold by Chinese owner ByteDance.

Trump has declined to enforce the law while his

administration looks for a new owner, but also because he

worries a ban on the app would anger TikTok's huge user base and

disrupt political communications.

"I like TikTok; it helped get me elected," Trump said

during a press conference on Thursday. "TikTok has tremendous

value. The United States has that value in its hand because

we're the ones that have to approve it."

Key questions about the deal remain. It's not clear the

precise ownership structure of the company, how much control

China will retain or whether Congress will approve.

The deal would transfer TikTok's U.S. assets to U.S. owners

from ByteDance, Reuters has reported. Sources familiar with the

deal said U.S. TikTok would still make use of ByteDance's

algorithm.

That arrangement worries lawmakers concerned that Beijing

could spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through

the app. China has said there is no evidence of a national

security threat posed by the app.

ICY RELATIONS

Trump has positioned his foreign policy approach as one of

peace-seeking and deal-making. Relations remain icy between the

world's two biggest economies.

"We're pretty close to a deal," Trump said on Thursday,

in an apparent reference to larger trade talks. "We may do an

extension with China, but it's an extension based on the same

terms that we have right now, which are pretty good terms."

Other key issues include competition between both sides on

semiconductors and other advanced technologies. The U.S. wants

more Chinese purchases of U.S.-harvested soybeans and Boeing ( BA )

airplanes.

The U.S. is also demanding that China crack down on the

export of fentanyl-related chemicals, a major cause of U.S.

overdose deaths. Beijing has accused Washington of distorting

the issue.

Recent data point to slowing economies in both China and the

United States.

Since retaking office in January, Trump sharply hiked

tariffs across the board and singled out China's export-oriented

economy with especially punitive rates. That prompted China to

respond in kind. Tariff rates on both sides of the Pacific rose

to triple-digit percentages in April.

A succession of limited agreements since May paused the

tit-for-tat tariff war between the countries.

They also set aside issues that led to China choking off

rare-earth magnets that Washington needs to make high-tech

gadgets. Trump had blocked Beijing's access to semiconductor

design software, jet engines and some chemicals.

"China's effective use of sticks (rare earths) and carrots

(TikTok) has turned things heavily in their favor," said Scott

Kennedy, head of the Chinese Business and Economics program at

the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think

tank.

Tariffs, a tax on U.S. importers, have been a key plank of

Trump's economic policy. He's raised them to the highest levels

in nearly a century.

The Republican has portrayed tariffs as an elixir that can

recoup lost manufacturing jobs, cut chronic federal government

deficits, correct perceived trade imbalances and bend foreign

countries to Washington's will.

Despite the tariffs, China remains the U.S.' third-largest

trading partner and the source of its largest bilateral trade

deficit in goods.

Trump has threatened but so far withheld punitive tariffs

against Chinese exports related to the country's purchases of

Russian oil.

At the same time, regional worries are multiplying over

Taiwan and the South China Sea, risky flashpoints that struggle

to command as much attention in Washington as the Russia-Ukraine

and Gaza wars.

"Heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in

providing strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations," said Liu

Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington.

In an early sign of goodwill prior to the call, China

permitted the departure of Wells Fargo ( WFC ) banker Chenyue

Mao, who had been prevented from returning to the United States

for several months.