The US has set import tariffs of steel and aluminium sparking fury and fears of a trade war with China and the EU.
Speaking in the Bundestag today, Mrs Merkel said: “We consider these tariffs unlawful.”
The German Chancellor said Germany is convinced Mr Trump’s “America first” isolationism will hurt everyone in the end.
But despite her condemntation, Mrs Merkel admitted Germany and the EU will continue talks with the US on trade.
This is not the first time the German Chancellor has hit out at Mr Trump’s plans.
Speaking in Munich on March 9, she said she viewed Mr Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs “with concern” and backed the EU Commission in addressing the World Trade Organisation about the dispute.
Mrs Merkel is also seeking dialogue with the US and called for the EU to be exempt from the tariffs.
She said: “I believe that the channels of dialogue should be maintained.”
The Trump administration set import tariffs on Thursday of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium but exempted Canada and Mexico and offered the possibility of excluding other allies, backtracking from an earlier stance.
Mr Trump imposed the tariffs after claiming the metal trade threatened “national security” by degrading the American industrial base.
Prime Minister Theresa May also expressed major concerns earlier this month about the US President’s import tariff plans and fears are continuing to grow about the prospect of a trade war.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister raised our deep concern at the President’s forthcoming announcement on steel and aluminium tariffs, noting that multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity in all parties’ interests.”
Mrs May’s de facto deputy also hit out at Mr Trump’s trade rhetoric. Cabinet Office minister David Lidington told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme: “I just think that the United States is not taking an advisable course in threatening a trade war.”
France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire has said he “expects” the EU to be exempt from steel and aluminium tariffs threatening a trade war with President Trump.
Mr Le Maire has warned the US President that if no deal is reached, the EU could hit back by slapping 25 percent tariffs of its own on a range of US products, whose annual imports to the EU are worth £2.46billion ($3.45 billion).
The threat comes in the midst of a G20 summit meeting in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires, at which world financial leaders pushed for an endorsement of free trade, despite the Trump administration insisting they were not prepared to sacrifice US national interests.
Mr Le Maire made his remarks after a meeting with US opposite number, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
He told reporters afterwards: “I’ve been clear with Steve Mnuchin that we are waiting for a full exemption from these new American tariffs for the European Union as a whole.