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Both sides were already locked in a "trade conflict" since Trump's decision to slap punitive tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, said Merkel, adding that "it is worthwhile to prevent this conflict from becoming a real war".
The EU has slapped tariffs on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans and
Harley-Davidson motorcycles, as a symbolic tit-for-tat response to the metals duties.
Taking aim at Trump over his complaint that the EU, and in particular Germany, is running a massive trade surplus against the US, Merkel said that his calculation is skewed as it is based only on goods, not services.