German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned against cutting the German economy off from potential markets abroad, against the backdrop of a debate on punitive tariffs for Chinese products. “Protectionism only makes everything more expensive in the end,” he said on Wednesday at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry conference in Berlin. “What we need is fair and free global trade,” he said. The US government announced on Tuesday that it would raise the existing tariffs on electric cars and other products from China from 25% to 100%. The United States justified its decision by saying that Beijing di…