Trump is right about trade and Merkel needs to do something about it, former German state secretary says

Germany should fix the current trade tensions sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump, a former German state secretary told CNBC Friday, as he expressed sympathy with the U.S.' position in an escalating war of words with China over trade practices.

Flassbeck's comments come amid rising fears of an all-out trade war between the U.S. and China. On Thursday, Trump instructed his trade team to consider $100 billion in additional tariffs on Chinese products — raising fears of a continued escalation against global free trade. This would be the second set of tariffs imposed on China in a couple of weeks.

In early March, Trump started by implementing tariffs on aluminum and steel imports — measures that did not represent a big impact for China, but did for countries like Japan and potentially Europe too.

Germany has also faced international criticism for its trade surplus, which means its exports outweigh its imports, as some see it as unfair, imbalanced and a cause for protectionism elsewhere.

However, Germany saw the first decline in its trade surplus since 2009 last year. Data from the Federal Statistics Office showed that trade surplus dropped to $300.9 billion in 2017 from the record high seen in the previous year at $304.44 billion.

The euro zone's largest economy still had room for improvement, Flassbeck told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick.

"Germany is really out there as the main culprit, so to say, because Germany has the highest surplus, much higher than China in terms of GDP… Germany has to do something against it, that's absolutely clear," Flassbeck said.

Last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany's trade surplus has been narrowing due to higher domestic demand. She added that Germany will continue to work towards that trend, but there are factors, such as oil prices and currency levels, that it cannot control.