Germany is heading “back to the 1930s,” a top economist warned on Thursday in response to the US tariff surge, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz predicted there would “only be losers” from a trade war.

Some of Germany’s top economists have reacted with alarm to tariffs of at least 20 per cent announced overnight by Donald Trump on the European Union, which will have a particularly severe impact on German carmakers.

“The 1930s are back,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING Germany, comparing the wave of trade barriers imposed by the White House to 1930s-era protectionist trade rules.

Mr Scholz, the outgoing Chancellor, described the tariffs as “fundamentally wrong” and warned that there “would only be losers” in terms of the global trade fallout.

“This is an attack on a trading system which has created prosperity all over the world,” added Mr Scholz, while his outgoing economy minister Robert Habeck complained of “US tariff mania”.