BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the specter of a global financial crisis as she warned of potential fallout from a trade war with the U.S., saying tariffs on European cars would be “much more serious” than levies on steel and aluminum.

In an address to Germany’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, Merkel cited President Donald Trump’s threat of targeting U.S. imports of cars from Europe, which risk hitting Germany the hardest. She backed efforts by the European Union and U.S. negotiators to reach a deal this month.

“The international financial crisis, which ensured that we now act in the framework of the (Group of 20), would never have been resolved so quickly, despite the pain, if we hadn’t cooperated in a multilateral fashion in the spirit of comradeship,” she said. “This has to happen.”

As the leader of Europe’s biggest economy, Merkel underscored her resolve to fight for the survival of post-World War II global institutions under attack by the Trump administration.

“This is taking on the contours of a trade conflict. I don’t want to use words that go any further,” Merkel said in her speech. “It’s worth every effort to try to defuse this so that this conflict doesn’t become a war.”