Germany’s influential major industry and export groups have joined its politicians to speak out against impending EU anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar products, warning of a trade war with the world’s second-biggest economy.

“Before the introduction of anti-dumping proceedings against China, all possibilities should be exhausted to find a negotiated solution,” Ulrich Grillo, the president of the Association of German Industries, or BDI, said in a statement over the weekend.

Punitive