berlin the heads of volkswagen bmw and daimler are ready to attend a meeting at the white house with the trump administration but have not yet received a formal invitation industry sources said on thursday the handelsblatt newspaper on wednesday cited industry and diplomatic sources as saying the meeting could possibly take place as soon as next week the paper said it was not known whether us president donald trump would attend the meeting its clear that the meeting is planned and that the ceos will attend said one industry source a second industry source confirmed plans for a meeting in washington but said details were still being worked out and the ceos would make clear they could not negotiate on behalf of the european union advt trump has threatened for months to impose tariffs on all european unionassembled vehicles a move that could upend the industrys business model for selling cars in the united states but he has refrained from imposing car tariffs while the united states and european union launch negotiations to cut other trade barriers sources at the carmakers said no formal invitation had been received and no travel arrangements had been made they said the meeting could take place at short notice possibly next week the companies declined to comment publicly a german government spokesman said the chancellery was familiar with the idea of such a meeting but said european union officials were responsible for all trade negotiations one industry source said the invitation put the companies in an awkward position given the eus responsibility for trade matters at the same time they did not want to turn down the opportunity to engage in dialogue what matters is that we find a solution said one source adding that it was critical for the german car industry to maintain access to the us market the second largest behind china bernd westpahl business policy spokesman for the social democrats junior partners in the german coalition government said the invitation offered an opportunity to make progress it is a good and perhaps the last opportunity to convince the us president to back away from punitive tariffs he said advt handelsblatt said richard grenell the us ambassador to germany had relayed the invitation to the car companies grenell also met with the german car bosses in july an embassy spokesman referred all questions to the white house no immediate response was available given the us thanksgiving day holiday the united states currently imposes tariffs on cars of 25 percent compared to 10 percent tariffs in the eu reuters published on nov 23 2018 at 0926 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context