US-China trade deal near? Harvard scholar hints at progress in ‘very intense’ talks
Former US official Graham Allison says memorandum of understanding between two sides could come as early as next week

The United States and China could reach a trade agreement as early as next week, according to a Harvard scholar, who has offered clues on the state of negotiations just over a month after the rival economies agreed to a trade truce.
Allison, who served as assistant secretary of defence under former US president Bill Clinton, said markets tended to behave unsympathetically, and when extreme measures like embargoes were introduced, “pretty soon you’ll look and see what happens in the real world that is unsustainable”.
On the heated US-China rivalry over export controls, he said both sides realised their respective domestic firms would face disruptions because of their measures.
