LONDON (Reuters) - Germany doesn't want to get embroiled in a trade war with the United States, the country's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Friday.

"I think increasing tariffs is not a good idea," Scholz said at an event at Bloomberg, in response to speculation that the U.S. could apply tariffs to car imports from Europe in the coming weeks.

"I hope things like this could be avoided," he added saying he also hoped the issue wouldn't get confrontational.

"The best thing we can do for growth and wealth is rules-based free trade. I hope that we will have a better situation so that we can get again more global trade agreements."

(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Huw Jones)

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