Brussels reportedly set to offer a TTIP branch on trade to Washington

The European Union will propose a "miniature, simplified" version of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to the US administration in a bid to end trade hostilities and in order to avoid US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

Talks on TTIP began in July 2013 but stopped before the last US presidential elections, reportedly amid notable reservations from Austria and the Netherlands, having reportedly been left half undone.

There was also some opposition coming from France and Germany at the time, in part because both governments were themselves also heading into general elections; although German Chancellor Angela Merkel herself appeared to back them, her French counterpart Francois Hollande was already deeply popular at home.

Indeed, to an extent the negotiations also fell afoul of the populist anti-establishment mood among electorates at the time right across the developed world - which culminated in Brexit, among other notable events.

The break in talks also came against a backdrop of allegations - perhaps undeserved - of a lack of transparency in the negotiations.

The original timetable had envisaged that the talks would be concluded by January 2017, which might have delivered a significant boost to global long-term growth prospects if TTIP's proponents were to be believed.

On a related note, the day before the Journal had also reported that during his visit to Washington that week, Germany's finance minister would lobby for "special treatment", asking the White House for his country's companies to be exempted from tough new US sanctions on Russia.

Previously, in an interview with Bloomberg TV conducted on 16 April, Germany's new coordinator for transatlantic relations, Peter Beyer, had labelled trade relations between the US and Germany "obviously very demanding".

Beyer also called for a joint strategy at the G-7 level on addressing China's alleged strategy of intellectual property theft.

Angela Merkel herself was due to travel to Washington DC on 29 April.