Last-Ditch Effort to Dodge Trade Fight as Merkel Visits U.S.

European officials expect the White House to make good on its threat to impose higher tariffs on steel and aluminum from EU countries

Bojan Pancevski in Berlin,

William Mauldin in Washington and

Emre Peker in Brussels

Updated April 26, 2018 6:00 p.m. ET

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is traveling to Washington for a high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday, in a last-ditch effort to avoid the biggest trade conflict in years between the U.S. and the European Union.

European officials expect the White House to make good on its threat to impose higher tariffs on steel and aluminum from EU countries, including France, Germany and the U.K. That would trigger retaliatory tariffs on a list of American products including motorcycles, bluejeans and bourbon whiskey,...