BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the European Union’s trade negotiations with Washington as “far too complicated.”

“Negotiating 400, 500, 600 different customs codes with the Americans now is the wrong time for the wrong issue,” Merz said at an industry summit in Berlin on Monday.

“We now need rapid joint decisions for four of the five major industries: automotive, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and mechanical engineering,” he said, adding that a quick agreement on steel and aluminum was also needed.

The EU’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, said on Monday the EU is working hard to get a trade deal done with the United States before a July 9 deadline set by President Donald Trump and that talks are progressing.

Merz, however, said he would push for a less complicated and faster approach together with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during the upcoming EU summit in Brussels later this week.

“We don’t want the best of the best; we want the most important of the necessary,” he said.

Germany’s export-oriented economy is expected to be particularly hard hit in the event of an ongoing trade dispute with Washington.

Higher U.S. tariffs are likely to cost the German economy around 0.3 percentage points of growth this year if they come into force, according to a forecast of the country’s main industry association (BDI) on Monday.