China's Vice Premier Wu Yi (
But despite her reputation as a tough-talking "Iron Lady," Wu's visit may result in little concrete progress.
Analysts say November's US presidential and congressional elections weigh heavily on the Bush administration's motivation to iron out problems in the trading relationship.
New sources of friction, such as China's tax rebates for domestic chip manufacturers and its plans to impose a new Wi-Fi standard, as well as old irritants such as the exchange rate, a ballooning US trade deficit, counterfeiting and high-tech exports to China will be discussed.
The talks will begin on Wednesday within the framework of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.
"US-China relations are going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment," said Robert Broadfoot, managing director of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong.
"Both sides are going to score some points, but they're not going to resolve any of the issues," Broadfoot said.
Some members of the Bush administration as well as business and trade union leaders blame China for stealing US jobs and exercising unfair trading policies such as currency manipulation to attract jobs and boost export competitiveness.
Despite data last month that suggested that US companies finally have started hiring again, the issue of jobs being outsourced to low-cost countries such as India and China remains a focal point of US electoral debate.
"It's the issue of the day," said Jim Gradoville, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
"To some degree there's no question that some issues that have come up [in the US] have received a lot more attention than they would have," Gradoville said.
The jubilation that accompanied China's accession to the WTO in late 2001 has been overtaken by a growing sense that it has been dragging its feet on the commitments it made then, and that Bei-jing has been erecting non-tariff barriers across a broad range of industries.
In his annual report on the practices of US trade partners released this month, Zoellick said that while China has made progress in opening its markets to foreign firms, it still maintains "substantial barriers to trade that have yet to be dismantled."
Last month, the US filed the first-ever complaint against China with the WTO, alleging its favorable tax policies toward domestic chip manufacturers discriminated against imported US chips.
China, in turn, will have its own list of complaints.
Premier Wen Jiabao (
Beijing also will be griping about US weapons sales to Taiwan and the rising number of punitive measures taken against its imports in sectors such as televisions, textiles and furniture.
Yet the rise in the number of trade disputes could also be a sign of increasingly intimate ties in Sino-US commerce.
"It reflects the fact that the relationship is maturing," Gradoville said, explaining that as the relationship matures, the volume of trade and commerce increases -- which naturally gives rise to more problems.
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