The Trade Deal China Wants Isn’t Just Bad, It May Be Illegal By James Bacchus (Bloomberg Opinion) -- In talks earlier this month, Chinese negotiators reportedly offered to eliminate their country’s bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. by buying $1 trillion in American goods over the next few years. It’s unclear whether they were serious, or whether U.S. producers could even meet the additional demand. The biggest problem with such a transactional deal, though, is one no one’s talking about: It would most likely be illegal. Because China and the U.S. are members of the World Trade Organization, they each have a legal obligation under the WTO treaty not to favor imported products from one WTO member over like imports from any other WTO member. This is the most-favored-nation rule of nondisc