US CEOs want trade treaty to be top of Obama-Xi meeting

"These sectors are extremely important to the US economy and allowing American firms to compete for business in China will hand them an enormous expansion opportunity."

"This is actually really important for US firms. BITs can help foster access and promote predictability to the cross-border investment environment, as well as provide potential avenues for recourse in case a party feels that it has unfairly been taken advantage of," said Lundblad.

China would benefit from this as high-quality investments would move there as opposed to other emerging markets, Lundblad said.

"Right now China's investments in the US are increasing rapidly. Without a treaty I doubt that it could keep increasing at this pace."

According to the Rhodium Group, a New York consulting firm, Chinese investment in the US doubled in 2013 to nearly $14 billion, driven by large-scale acquisitions in food, energy and real estate.

"I'm not sure this is a first order effect in such a BIT－it does, of course, cut both ways, so to the extent that this promotes access or recourse for a Chinese investment here, that's a help," Lundblad said.

Chinese continue to snap up properties in US	Experts: Bright times ahead for Sino-US tradeand investment