The European Commission has cast aside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s suggestion to pursue a trade deal between the European Union and China, calling instead on Beijing to “meaningfully” address its distortive economic practices. The bloc, like most developed economies, is struggling to contain a ballooning trade deficit with China, which has turned to low-cost exports to offset a persistent real estate crisis and sluggish consumer demand. The imbalance has raised serious concerns of unfair competition, industrial decline and mass unemployment across Europe. “We want to have the strongest and most mutually beneficial possible trade and investment relationship with China,” Olof…