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Economic diplomacy, an on-ramp for student loan repayment and a little bit of Christmas in July.

It's all on the program today from American Public Media. This is Marketplace.

In Baltimore, I'm Amy Scott in for Ky Ristall. It's Monday, July 3rd. Good to have you with us.

While a lot of us are busy prepping for Independence Day celebrations in Washington, D.C., folks at the Treasury Department are getting ready for a big international trip.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is off to Beijing later this week. She'll meet with senior officials in the Chinese government to discuss, according to Treasury, how the world's two largest economies can work together on global challenges and, quote, responsibly manage our relationship.

That relationship, to put it mildly, has not been great. The Secretary's visit comes as the State Department warns Americans to reconsider travel to China due to the risk of wrongful detention.

And as China announces new trade restrictions related to chip manufacturing. Marketplaces Kimberley Adams reports from Washington on what's likely to be on Yellen's agenda.

There's a giant list of economic issues Secretary Yellen could address on this trip. Trade and tariffs, climate change, forced labor issues, the list goes on. Abigail Hornstein is an economics professor at Wesleyan University.

She says there are two approaches the Secretary could take.

One would be to focus on the top short-term economic issues from the U.S. perspective, which are inflation and unemployment.

To tackle those, talks could focus on supply chain issues and making sure goods and services flow easily between the two countries. Or Yellen could take a more long-term perspective.

Focus more on the structure of economic ties between the countries, looking at export and import patterns and foreign direct investment.

Yellenstein expects a blend of both strategies with an emphasis on issues facing American companies that operate in China. Rosalind Shea co-directs the Political Economy Program at Temple University.

Some of those important issues include market access for U.S. companies, both in China and in countries where China has a lot of influence. Plus, there are trade issues.

U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, many of them from the different rounds of tariffs during the U.S. China trade war actually remain in effect.

But the larger goal of this trip, says Wei Feng Zhong at the Mercatocenter, is just to ease tensions a bit.

There are a lot of legitimate security concerns when it comes to our economic relationship with China.

But maintaining the channels of communications and official engagement is important.

He says just sitting down and talking will be a win on this trip. At the same time, I don't think the talks in itself could put the two countries back to the right track.

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