The weakening of the yuan is expected to headline the two-day economic meeting this week between Chinese and U.S. officials in Beijing.

The six-member American delegation from the U.S. Department of Treasury includes Taiwan-born Sharon Yuan, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew's key contact person in dealings with the world's biggest economy after the U.S.

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In the July 9-10 U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, Yuan will try to persuade Beijing to give U.S. businesses greater access to the Chinese market. In an interview, she hinted that success of the talks hinges on China making true of its pledge to step up adoption of market economy.

"How China implements its reforms will matter greatly to the United States and our ability to compete on a level playing field," Bloomberg news quoted the 37-year-old Yuan a saying.

Yuan, a former trade lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP, is seen as key to the talks because of her experience with trade and investment disputes and some knowledge of Mandarin.

In Washington, Brookings Institution senior fellow David Dollar said, "The most important issue for the U.S. is that China still has a lot of markets that are closed to exports, and probably more important, to foreign investment -- in sectors like financial services, media and telecom."

In addition to bilateral trade, China's vice minister of finance, Zhu Guangyou, said the two sides would discuss the yuan's exchange rate and how U.S. monetary restrictions impact international economy.

Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Janet Yellen will be present at the meeting. Washington's response to Beijing's intervention to keep the value of the yuan from rising has been described by critics as being too soft. Following a Treasury report declining to call China a currency manipulator, the Alliance for American Manufacturing said actions that the Obama Administration has taken to address the yuan issue have been "completely inadequate."

TagsU.S.-China trade, yuan, exchange rate, currency control, free trade