German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to visit U.S. President Donald Trump on April 27, just before the expiry of an exemption for the European Union from U.S. import duties on steel and aluminium, mass-selling daily Bild reported on Thursday.
The newspaper said in its online edition that several sources had confirmed Merkel's trip to the United States later this month. Her office had no immediate comment on the report.
The meeting would take place just after a visit, already confirmed, by French President Emmanuel Macron on April 24.
The twin visits would give the European Union's two leading national leaders the opportunity to lobby for the bloc to be exempted permanently from the steel and aluminium tariffs. The tariffs are suspended for the EU until May 1.
Merkel, in a telephone call with Trump last week, called for dialogue on trade policy between the EU and the United States, "taking into account the rules-based international trade system".
Merkel's relationship with Trump got off to a frosty start after his November 2016 election.
Before a phone conversation on March 1 to discuss the war in Syria and Russian nuclear arms, the two leaders had not spoken to each other in more than five months.
Her visit to the United States, if confirmed, would also take place shortly before a May 12 deadline that Trump has set to improve an international deal to curb Iran's nuclear program.
Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the accord between Tehran and six world powers, signed in 2015 before he took office, unless France, Britain and Germany help agree a follow-up pact by that date. Trump does not like the deal's limited duration, among other things.
