Merkel says open to international talks on slashing car tariffs

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today she would back opening talks with trading partners on lowering automobile tariffs, as US President Donald Trump threatens hefty levies on car imports from the European Union.

Merkel's stance came after US ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, hosted bosses of Germany's biggest car firms on Wednesday evening, calling on the EU to bring tariffs to zero on car imports -- in exchange for equal treatment by the US.

But Merkel said that any negotiations on lowering tariffs could only be conducted with "all the countries with which we have trade in cars," rather than just with the United States.

A deal with the US alone "would not conform with WTO" rules, she said.

"We can either have negotiations about a wide range of tariffs, for 90 per cent of goods," Merkel said in a reference to the stalled talks for a transatlantic free-trade deal known as TTIP.

"Or we can talk about one type of goods, but then we must accord the same treatment to all trading partners of the world. That can be an option that I can imagine," she continued.

Noting that the EU will negotiate as a bloc, Merkel also said that European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker will be heading to Washington for talks in a bid to head off a trade war with the US.

Trump on Sunday charged that Europe is "possibly as bad as China" on trade, as he reiterated that he is mulling import taxes of 20 per cent on EU cars, after having already imposed duties on steel and aluminium.

The EU has slapped tariffs on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, as a symbolic tit-for-tat response to the metal duties.