Reliance on cheap Russian energy along with brutal competition from China has hit the German economy hard, and President-elect Trump's threat of tariffs are creating more uncertainty.

European countries could be among those hardest hit if Trump follows through on tariffs. The European Union says it wants to negotiate but is prepared to retaliate.

The layman’s narrative of the 1930s is that America’s Smoot-Hawley tariffs set off a beggar-thy-neighbour spiral and caused the Great Depression. It is not true. This free-trade ideology lies behind much of the confusion over what may happen if Donald Trump goes ahead with his 10pc or 20pc tariffs against everybody and 60pc tariffs against China.