BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that he would pursue a deal under which U.S. cars could be imported into Europe duty free in exchange for tariff waivers on the same number of vehicles exported to the U.S.

Speaking at an event in Berlin just hours after his inaugural trip to Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, Merz said: "We have to see if we can come up with an offset rule or something along those lines."

"We agreed that we will have two representatives between the White House and the chancellery who will now talk intensively with each other about German-American trade relations," he added.

He said trade negotiations with the U.S. remained within the remit of the European Union, however, and that later on Friday he would speak to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to brief her on the outcome of his talks with Trump.

The news comes after sources told Reuters last month that Mercedes-Benz and German rivals BMW and Volkswagen were in talks with Washington over a possible import tariff deal.

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius told Spiegel in an interview on Thursday that such a mechanism could act as a precedent for other industries.

(Writing by Friederike HeineEditing by Ludwig Burger)