An approaching World Trade Organization deadline makes higher prices likelier for European goods made with parts and materials imported from China, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Dec. 11, the European Union could grant China “market economy status,” making it harder under WTO rules for the EU to protect its industries from what it deems as unfair trade practices by Beijing. Or, the EU could draft new trade rules that do away with the distinction between market and nonmarket economies that the bloc has used in the past. The odds are against China getting the market title by the deadline, said Edwin Vermulst, a partner at Brussels-based law firm VVGB Advocaten. “There is simply too much pressure from southern EU states and industrial sectors with a protectionist agenda to maintain, or even increase, the high level of duties,” Mr. Vermulst said.