BERLIN

Germany said on Monday it hopes to avoid an escalation of the trade war with the US, while calling for stepped-up efforts to lower trade obstacles.

"We don't want to trigger a trade war; rather, the goal should be to further reduce trade barriers," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a press briefing in Berlin.

"And the second thing is that we must, of course, protect our domestic companies from what might otherwise happen," he added.

Hebestreit stressed that one should not react emotionally now, but rather understand the impact of the US tariffs.

According to Hebestreit, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in talks with other European heads of state and government and leading German companies.

He is also informing those currently negotiating a new coalition government, saying there is "a close connection between the caretaker federal government and a possible future federal government."

Trump advisor and tech billionaire Elon Musk stated over the weekend that he hopes for the abolition of all tariffs between Europe and North America. Hebestreit did not want to comment specifically on this, but said that everyone would certainly benefit from tariff reductions.

On Apr. 3, Scholz sharply criticized US President Donald Trump’s tariffs decisions, calling them “an attack” on the established international trade order.

“I believe the US president's recent tariff decisions are fundamentally wrong. They are an attack on a trade order that has created prosperity around the globe,” Scholz told a news conference in Berlin.

He pointed out that the current international trade system, founded on free market principles and reduced trade barriers, was established through the efforts of previous American administrations.

Scholz warned that the new tariffs announced by the Trump administration would have a negative impact across Europe, the United States, and worldwide.

“The entire global economy will suffer from these ill-conceived decisions. Businesses and consumers everywhere in the world, including in the US, will be affected. The US administration is embarking on a path that can only result in losses for everyone,” he said.